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CULTURE AND MANUFACTURE 



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PRINTED BY GEO. W. WOOD, 15 SPRUCE-STREET. 






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LETTERS 



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CULTURE AND MANUFACTURE 



COTTON: 

Editor of Hunt's Herohants' Hagazine. 

AND PUBLISHED IN THE NUMBERS OF THAT JOURNAL FOE FEBRUARY AND MARCH, 1850, 



IN REPLY TO THE 

COMMUNICATIONS OF A. A. LAWRENCE, ESq., 

Originally published in the Merchants' Magazine for Dec. 1849 and January, 1850. 

BY CHARLES T. JAMES, 

CIVIL ENGINEKR, OF PROVIDENCE, R. I. 




CO NEW YORK: 
PRINTED BY GEO. W. WOOD, 15 SPRUCE-STREET. 

1850. 









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Tl9 



CULTUEE AND MANUFACTURE 



OF 



COTTON. 



To Freeman Hunt, Esq., Editor of the Merchant^ Magazine, etc. 

The readers of the " Merchants' Magazine''' will recollect that in the 
number for November, 1849, an article was published in relation to the cul- 
ture and manufacture of cotton at the South, furnished by me. That article 
has had the effect to call forth considerable discussion in the columns of the 
newspaper press, and, finally, a review from the pen of Amos A. Lawrence, 
Esq., of Boston, which appeared in the December (1849) number of the 
Merchants' Magazine., and that of January, 1850, under the head of " The 
Condition and Prospects of American Cotton Manufactures, in 1849," and 
to which the following remarks are intended as a reply. Before proceeding, 
however, to discuss the subject in question, the writer would beg leave to 
make two or three preliminary observations. 1st. The caption of Mr. Law- 
rence's review, as he pleases to term it, is a sort of rii^jin tended, no doubt, 
to lead the reader away from the true question. Mylffiicle was not based 
on the cotton manufactures of America for 1849, nor for any other paiticu- 
lar year. It was an abridgement of a pamphlet published at the request of 
others, and extensively circulated at the South and South-West, based on 
the general condition of the cotton manufacture in America and Great Brit- 
ain, for a series of years, and the '■'■prospect'''' as to what might be done at 
manufacturing in the South. Of course, in treating the subject, respect was 
had to the advantages the South possessed over the North for the j^rosecution 
of the business. Of all this, in his animadversions on my estimates of cost 
profits, &c., Mr. Lawrence takes not the slightest notice, but represents me 
as stating, as my prices of cotton, the value in the New York market. He 
may consider such conduct gentlemanly : I consider nothing gentlemanly 
that is unfair — and Mr. Lawrence must have known that he entirely misrep- 
resented me. 

In the second place, I consider Mr. Lawrence totally incompetent to dis- 
cuss such a subject ; and it is his name alone that gives his opinions res]3ect- 
ing it any weight. This I pledge myself to prove to the letter, before I have 
done with him. He is neither a mechanic nor a practical manufacturer ; 
and is probably not much better qualified to make up a correct judgment on 
the subject in question, than he would be to command a ship of war. In 
the third place, his pretended review is entitled to no sort of respect, because, 



4 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 

as I will show, it is false in many of its statements, and a portion of them 
•will be proved so by his own figures, and the statistics from which he pro- 
fesses to derive his tacts. From beginning to end it is illusive and deceptive ; 
whether ignorantly so on his part, or for the purpose of coimteracting my ef- 
forts, and to discourage southern competition with northern manufacturers, 
he best knows — and respecting which the candid reader is left to judge. On 
the whole, it is a sort of production for which a common school-boy would 
richly merit a rap on the knuckles, had he studied the simple rudiments of 
arithmetic, and learned the difference between a cotton spindle and a power 
loom. 

We will commence our review of the review, by noticing, first, one of his 
pretended corrections. Evidently struck with horror at the startling appari- 
tion of southern competition with northern manufacturers, in reference to 
the proposition to manufacture all our cotton at home, Mr. Lawrence, with 
apparent perfect confidence, exclaims — " From what source can labor and 
skill be derived, to set in operation an amount of machinery so vast as is 
here contemplated ? And from what quarter is to proceed the capital re- 
quired for the enterprise ?" Are not these very sage queries to be started by 
a financier, a political economist, and a manufacturer .^ Forty years since, in 
New England, it would not have sounded strange to hear such inquiries ; 
seventy or eightv years since, in Great Britain. But in both countries they 
have been satisfactorily solved, and now soxtnd perfectly absurd and ridicu- 
lous. With the exception of comparatively small beginnings, what has cre- 
ated the manufacturing capital, and called skill and labor into operation, but 
manufactories themselves 1 Can Mr. Lawrence tell ? And why should not 
the South do the same, especially with the enormously increased facilities 
Europe and America now afford, and her advantage of fiu'nishing the cotton- 
mill with raw material from its proprietor's own field, at the market value of 
one and a half cent, to two cents per pound less than it costs the manufac- 
turer at Lowell, an^at least three cents per pound less than is paid for it in 
Great Britain ? ^i^ f^i") "^ Europe and America, Mr. Lawrence's problem 
has found no difficulty of solution ; and still the looms and spindles increase 
by thousands, and the capital increases by millions — maugre all pretended 
apprehensions of the paucity of labor, skill, and money — as, witness the new 
city of Lawrence, and the mammoth establishment in progress at Iladley 
Falls, to say nothing of other smaller ones going up in various places. If 
Mr. Lawrence and his friends are so extremely fearful of a lack of labor, 
skill, and capital, they should be less earnest than their actions would seem 
to indicate, to transfer the manufacture of cotton goods from Great Britain 
to Neiv England. They should cease to erect their large manufactories, and 
petition Congress for a bounty on British imports, instead of a high protective 
duty. This might quiet their fears for a time. 

But the above queries, as far as they are intended to mean anything, are 
thrown out to mystify the reader, and, if possible, to intimidate the people of 
the South ; and thus to discourage them from the attempt to improve the 
advantao'es they possess for a successful competition with the North. He 
knows, and so does every manufecturer, that they have not even the sem- 
blance of fact. By the statement that manufacturing is a " legitimate " bu- 
siness for the South, and must extend there, he would seem inclined to give 
the southern people encouragement to go on ; but this is a seeming, only^ for 
throughout he iises every eftbrt in his power to neutralize their energies, and 
to cast obstructions in their way. Wliat is the character of his fears as re- 



Culture and Manufacture of Cotton, 5 

spects labor, skill, and capital ? Does his sympatlietic soul take the alarm ? 
Is he very much distressed with fearful anxiety, lest " our friends of the 
South " should ruin themselves by the prosecution of a branch of business 
which has made Great Britain the banker of the world, and left New Eng- 
land but a short distance in the rear ? 

His tender soul certainly deserves commisseration, and it is hoped he will 
carefully bottle up his tears, as a memento of fraternal piety, to be handed 
down, as a sacred relic, to future posteiity. But it may he that the gentle- 
man's sympathies go with " our friends at " Lowell. It would not be won- 
derful, seeing he is one of the brotherhood. They may possibly extend them- 
selves to the new city of Lawrence, and to other regions of the North and 
East. Who knows ? Doubtless he must commisserate the poverty and suf- 
ferings of such men as the Lawrences, the Appletons, and a host of others, 
who have found the manufacturing business such a losing affair, that they 
have not probably made more than fifty or a hundred thousand dollars each 
by it per annum, for some time past. Poor souls ! Their doughty champion 
is probably fearful that the southern people, should they go largely into the 
business, may reduce those small incomes to still lower figures, and thus bring 
the poverty-stricken souls to absolute destitution ! It is hoped his fears may 
not be realized to such an awful extent ! 

But as a business-man, does not Mr. Lawrence know that capital will al- 
ways seek profitable investment ? That a lucrative business will command 
it at first, and Avill continue to create its own means afterwards ? Does he 
not know that labor, like every other commodity, will seek the best market, 
that skill will do the same, and that a lucrative business can afford good prices, 
and will command both ? He may have known a particular branch of busi- 
ness to suffer embarrassment for a time, from their scarcity, but he never 
knew, and never will know, any lucrati\ e business to fail entirely, or to suffer 
very material permanent injury, from the want of capital, labor, and skill. 
From the present state of the world, and the vast amount of wealth already 
accumulated, and being accumulated, and the rapid increase of population, 
especially in this country, the South has nothing to fear in these respects. 
Let the people there multiply cotton spindles as fast as New England has 
done, and is doing, and they will not be under the necessity of suffering a, 
defeat in the enterprise from the want of labor, skill, and capital. The his- 
tory of seventy years past will fully confirm this. 

The people whom Mr. Lawrence so affectionately terms " our southern 
friends," and of whose interests he appears to be so extremely careful, must 
feel themselves highly flattered by the picture of them which he draws ; and 
they must be very happily, not to say strangely, constituted, if, as he repre- 
sents them, they are " satisfied," as he says they are, with the state of things 
he has detailed. He says the planters of the South receive and are satisfied 
with a lower rate of interest than the British manufacturers, or even than 
our own ; an assertion, by-the-by, which Mr. Lawrence himself attempts to 
disprove on the very next page ! Yet it is true that they do receive a lower 
rate of interest than the British or American manufacturer either ; but that 
they are " satisfied " with it, is not true. This we shall show. He goes on 
to say — " Though there are many rich men in the large cotton-growing 
States, the number of moneyed men is very small. The planters are gene- 
rally in debt, more or less, either from having extended their business beyond 
their means, or from the habit of anticipating their incomes, by borrowing of 
their cotton factors, the banks, or by credit at the stores." This picture is 



6 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 

correct in most of its details ; and, if true of tlie four ^^ great cotton-growing 
States " which Mr. Lawrence particularizes, what must it be of the others 
such as North and South Carolina, Tennessee, &c. ? And what is the cause 
of this state of things ? Mr. Lawrence insists that there is not an over-prO- 
duction of cotton. If there were not, then the supply and demand would 
keep pace with each other. The planter would be, as he seldom is, one party 
in the establishment of a price, which would have relation to the cost of pro- 
duction, and some respect to a fair profit on the business. But it is not so. 
There has been nearly all the time, for ten years, a large redundant stock on 
hand. The planter has been compelled to sell for the prices offered him. 
And those prices have yielded him returns so small, that he has been com- 
pelled to keep in debt, and to anticipate his income. The cotton planter, as 
a general rule, lives in a much more frugal manner than the northern man- 
ufacturer, or even than the agent and chief officers of his establishment. Why, 
then, is he not rich ? Why is he not a moneyed man ? Why is he always 
in debt ? Simply, and for no other reason than, though a few very large 
operators on the very best lands make money, yet by far the greater portion 
are able, with the most prudent management, to do but little more than 
"make both ends of the year meet." This is no fiction. It is a picture 
drawn from personal observation and long acquaintance, and not sketched 
from fency, in Mr. Lawrence's counting-room or study. And, as to the large 
amount of lands remaining unsold in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and 
Arkansas, for want of capital, this story is pure fiction, and carries incontro- 
vertible evidence of its fallacy on its own face. If those lands were wanted 
for the ]iurpose of cotton culture, were of pi'oper character for that purpose, 
and could be worked to a profit, how long does Mr. Lawrence suppose they 
would remain unsold in market for want of capital ? Any smart, active, and 
prudent man, at the South, with a few hundred dollars in his pocket, may 
obtain nearly as many acres of these lands ; and even if he has no money, 
he can obtain them on credit. Why, then, are they not taken up ? For 
tw^o or three simple reasons, whicli cotton planters know, and well understand. 
1st. But a small proportion of them are adapted to the growth of cotton, 
even if more cotton lands were wanted. 2d. Because there is already more 
land appropriated to the growth of cotton than the demand for the article war- 
rants. 3d. As the consequence, a farther extension of the business would run 
it down still lower, and inevitably prove a losing operation to all concerned. 
These only, and not the want of caj)ital and population, are the reasons why 
the above-named lands remain unsold. If the culture of cotton had returned 
profits and created capital in an equal ratio with those of its manufacture, 
the cotton-growing States would, at this moment, have all the necessary cap- 
ital and population to carry out new enterprises, as well as New Euiiland. 
But they have not, and the reason is, that their business is not equally pro- 
ductive. In fact, as the history of ages fully attests, no people, purely agri- 
cultural, can make profits equal to those realized by manutacturei*s, nor create 
wealth as rapidly. 

As to the cost of cultivating cotton, I have but few words to say, but those 
will be sufficient. The estimates given by me are not my own. They are 
from planters who own and cultivate the best cotton plantations on the Mis- 
sissippi ; and taking theirs at the highest estimate, and others at the lowest, 
as to quantity the average will be smaller even than that I have given ; 
while it is well known that the smaller crop per acre on the medium and poorer 
plantations, as in all other agricultural operations, is produced at a higher 



Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. *J 

cost per pound than on the best. My average estimate, therefore, allows to 
the cotton planter a greater return than the facts would warrant. 

Mr. Lawrence undertakes to disprove my position that there is an over- 
production of cotton. Let us see how well he succeeds. He says, the 
quantity produced in 1845 has not been equalled since, till 1849 ; and what 
does this prove, even though, as he says, manufactories have much increased, 
both in Great Britain and the United States. In 1843 they might possibly 
have produced cotton enough to supply the factories for seven years, with 
all their increase, and raised none for the succeeding five years. What then ? 
Would not this have been an overproduction ? Yes : the planters might 
have suspended operations for seven years, and would not the quantity of 
1843 been an overproduction of the very worst kind? Would it not have 
been a ruinous aftair to the planter to have had such a stock on hand, di- 
minishing only in the ratio of the annual consumption ? And yet, according 
to Mr. Lawrence's logic, this would not have been an overproduction, because 
it was all purchased and consumed in the course of seven years ! And how 
would prices have ranged ? Let us now look at the markets during those 
six years, from 1843 to 1848, inclusive. In 1843, the amount raised in this 
country was 2,378,875 bales. On the 31st day of December, 1843, there 
remained on hand, in the British market, 785,950 bales, including that from 
India, &c. In 1844, the American crop amounted to 2,030,409 bales. 
Here was a falling off in the crop ; but the entire stock on hand, as above, 
December 31st, had increased to 903,110 bales; an increase of 117,160 
bales, the over production of 1843 and 1844 ; and, in 1845, by means of a 
still more redundant crop of 2,394,508 bales, the stock on hand December 
Slst, reached 1,055,270 bales. From that period to 1848, inclusive, the 
stock on hand December 31st, of that year, had only diminished to 496,050 
bales. Every year of this period, therefore, the planter had to go into the 
market with his cotton, with that market already supplied with a quantity 
varying from one-fifth to nearly one-half his entire crop. During the first 
three years of this period the quantity of American cotton alone on hand in 
the British market, exceeded the entire consumption in the United States, by 
667,771 bales ; and, during the last three years, it fell short of that quantity, 
by 567,876 bales. Thus, during the six years, the quantity of American 
cotton on hand in the British market, on an average, somewhat exceeded the 
entire consumption in the United States. Thus, up to the close of 1848, 
the European and American manufacturers combined, with all their increase 
of spindles and looms, had not relieved the American planters of the redund- 
ant production of the previous six years ; for there was then on hand 
496,050 bales, of which 272,230 were American, besides those in continental 
Europe and the United States. But Mr. Lawrence admits that there was an 
over-production of 616,000 bales in 1843, which has not been entirely dis- 
posed of till 1849 ; yet he considers this as no overproduction at all. But, 
to my obtuse intellect, it appears to me that this must be something worse to 
the planter than a regular overproduction of 100,000 bales a year, for six 
years. He has had it to compete with in the market all the time, less 
100,000 bales per annum, to press down prices, besides having so much pro- 
perty lying dead. 

Another hap-hazard statement of Mr. Lawrence is, that, in addition to 
the amount stated by me as being received by the planter for his cotton, 
there should be added $20,000,000 for " corn, potatoes, pork, &c.," sent to 
market. The cotton planters would rejoice, no doubt, to hear such a piece 



8 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 

of intelligence as this, provided they could believe it true, and Mr. Lawrence 
would just inform them where they should call for the money. They will 
find it in coined moonshine, on deposit in the invisible vaults of that gentle- 
man's air-built castle. It never had any other existence, as every cotton 
planter well knows. The estimated cost of the culture of cotton, contained 
in my article, included the cost of raising cotton only, and which embraced 
the cost of other products either to be purchased, or raised on the plantation, 
such as provisions, &c., necessary to the labors and laborers of the cotton- 
field. If Mr, Lawrence can find any " corn, pork, potatoes," &c., to abstract 
from these, without starving the laborers, he must be a keen economist. For 
one, I have not yet learned the art of feeding people at home with " corn, 
pork, and potatoes," and sending said " corn, pork, and potatoes " to market, 
too. But, if he will cast his eye back a few pages, to the article of Professor 
C. F. McCay, in the same number of the Magazine which contains the cele- 
brated veracious review before us, he will see that gentleman intimates a state 
of things something different from this snug little !^20,000,00 for corn, 
pork, potatoes, &c. The Professor says, when speaking of the cotton plant- 
ers, with the view to keeping up prices in market : " Let them continue their 
endeavors to divert their labor to other pursuits ; let their extra capital be 
devoted to the building of railroads, mills, and factories ; let them extend the 
cultivation of sugar, wheat, and corn ; let them raise at home their own 
pork, mules, and horses ; let them encourage domestic manufactures of all 
kinds." It would seem that Professor McCay, though located among the 
cotton-growers, and, as his article shows, a person of extensive observation 
and much intelligence, had a mighty notion, as we Yankees say, that the 
planters make too much cotton for the market, and too little corn, pork, &c., 
for themselves. He had evidently not yet had an inkling of the aforesaid 
imaginary $20,000,000, and probably never will have, unless the perusal of 
Mr. Lawrence's review should cause him to dream of them. 

Another serious " error^'' real or supposed, Mr. Lawrence has discovered 
and rebuked. He says that, in making my comparisons, the price of cotton 
is put at six cents, when it should have been put at the present rate of twelve 
or thirteen cents. To this I reply, in the fii"st place, when my article was 
written, no such price for cotton was known here, as he names, and, what- 
ever he may think on the subject, or would have done, it would not have 
been quite fair or honorable, in my view, to make a price in anticipation, to 
accommodate him, and to aid him in making out a case. The prices named 
by me, are quite as high as the average for the last ten years. In the second 
place, neither of the prices named by me was stated, or intended to be sta- 
ted, at any time, for " twenty days," or twenty hours, as the prices in the 
" New York market," as he seems to wish his readers to beheve. Had he 
read my article with one eye half open, he Avould have seen, and probably 
did see it. My estimate, based on actual results — results which I pledge to 
make good in my next — was intended, as the facts fully show, to a[)ply to a 
southern mill, with the cotton at the plantation value. My real estimate, or 
rather the estimate of the cotton planter, was six cents per pound retxirned to 
him ; but, to have it full high enough, in the estimate made in detail by me, 
it was put down at seven cents. So much for the honest fairness of the re- 
vieiv, (.?) and for the truth of what I have here stated, the reader is referred 
to my article. But to show still farther the sophistry, or something worse, 
of the review, its author admits the prices of cotton must fall, during the 
coming season, or the prices of cloth rise, or both. And yet, even under 



Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 9 

this conviction, he finds fault with me for not having adopted almost the high- 
est price of cotton for ten years as its average value, when that price was un- 
known, which has even now prevailed but for two or three months, and which 
he confesses can continue but a short time, without a rise in the price of 
cloth ; and for not adopting a low price of cloth, which he confesses has not 
been the average for more than nine months past ! I must have been either 
a fool or a knave, to make such a statement, and yet such is the statement 
the author of the review seems to think I ought to have made ! Still, I 
care not what price cotton may bear, for the course of trade will, in the long 
run, regulate the prices of cloth accordingly. Though fluctuations do, and 
will, occur, as in all other branches of business, manufacturing in New Eng- 
land will, as it ever has done, pay a handsome profit ; and the southern 
manufacturer, all other things being equal, can make a profit as much greater 
as all the difference between the cost of cotton in the cotton-fields, and its 
cost at Lowell ; and this will be $20,000 per annum at least, on the quantity 
consumed in my "first class mill," in the manufacture of sheetings No. 14. 
On this subject, however, my next article will treat in full. 

Again : I am called to account for the comparison of the labors of 5*7,000 
persons in the New England cotton-mills, in 1839, with those of the laborers 
in the cotton-fields in the South, or rather, the i)roducts of their labor, and in 
which I am accused of a tremendous error. And why this accusation ? How 
is this mighty error detected and exposed ? We shall see. He says, though 
the value of the cotton was put down at six cents per pound, the planter re- 
ceived thirteen cents for it that same year. And what does he suppose I 
have been about, for more than twenty years, that I should not know the 
prices of cotton as well as he, and especially with the same statistics at hand 
from which his own information is, or rather should be, derived ? Would it 
have been fair or honorable in me, in attempting to make out, for the inform- 
ation and at the request of others, a statement of what might be expected 
as the results of manufacturing ojjerations, under the best system, to point 
them to old mills running at a loss, and cotton, eleven years since, at " four- 
teen cents a pound in the southern market," when new mills can be erected 
at a reduction of cost of more than 25 per cent, and turn off more and bet- 
ter product by 25 per cent, and when, notwithstanding the high price of cot- 
ton in 1839, and a portion of 1849, its average value in that same market 
has not exceeded eight cents, nor returned to the planter more than six ? 
Such might have suited Mr. Lawrence's notion of honesty, and been appro- 
priate to his object ; but not so with me. My object, in that comparison, 
was the general relative amount of capital and value of product — not in the 
year 1839 in particular, but for a series of years ; and hence, without saying 
anything of prices in that year, either of cotton or cloths, a fair average for 
eleven years was made of the price of cotton, and the price of cloth taken at 
the low standard of 1849. Whether my course, or that pointed out by my 
reviewer, be the foir and honorable one, is left to persons of candor to judge. 
But I deny the statement that planters, in 1839, received thirteen cents per 
pound for their cotton. During that year, Georgia bowed cotton averaged 
but six and three-quarters pence per pound in the Liverpool market, (see 
Waterson's Cyclopedia of Commerce, Art. Cotton,) and the average price of 
this cotton was higher than that of any other description of American cotton, 
the small quantity of Sea Island excepted. Taking, therefore, all descriptions 
of American cotton together. Sea Island excepted, the average price for the 
year, in the Liverpool market, did not exceed thirteen cents per pound. 



10 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 

The duty alone was more than one cent per pound, to which add, for 
freight, commissions, insurance, drayage, &c., one and a half cent, and 
you leave the everage price in the American market ten and a half 
cents, instead of fourteen, with a return to the planter not exceeding nine 
and a half cents, instead of thirteen. So much for the assumed facts to 
correct my supposed error. During the entire period, up to this time, the 
price in the American market has fallen short of an average of eight cents ; 
and when I average the planter's return at six, I have the authority of his 
own estimate, as well as that of the best informed editors of New Orleans, 
Savannah, &c., who, in stating the value of the crops, state them at six cents 
per pound. 

Let the foregoing statements be tested by recurrence to official data, and 
then let judgment be made up between Mr. Lawrence and me. Will he now 
please to recollect, that in making my estimates for southern mills, his atten • 
tion is cited for the cost of cotton, not to Lowell, nor to the New York mar- 
ket, but to the cotton plantation. Whatever other silly notion he may at- 
tribute to me, he certainly cannot suppose me quite mad enough to think 
that the cotton planter would send his cotton to New York, for the pleasure 
of going there to purchase it at an advance of 30 per cent in price, to send 
back again with an additional cost of 30 per cent more, to supply his own 
spindles and looms. Suppose, now, one of Mr. Lawrence's " first class mills," 
with a capital of $360,000, (and some of them have less than that,) to man- 
ufacture, into sheetings No. 14, 1,800,000 lbs. of cotton per annum, as my 
"first class mill" will, and to make a dividend of 8 per cent, with cotton at 
the Lowell cost. Is it not a plain case, that could the cotton be had at the 
plantation price, if only one cent per pound less than its cost at Lowell, the 
difterence would be $18,000, or 5 per cent on the capital of $360,000 ? Add 
that to the average 8 per cent dividend, and you make it 13 per cent. If 
the Lowell manufacturer could realize such an advantage by having cotton 
grown in Massachusetts, instead of Alabama, why should not the southern 
manufecturer realize it, with the cotton-field almost within hailing distance 
of his own mill ? 

Again : my statement is disputed, that the value of the annual product 
of the British mills about equals the amountof capital employed; and, in 
order to correct me, the review states that the amount set down by me is 
only the value of mills and machinery, and there is employed, besides, a 
floating cajHtal of $110,000,000. On this point it is unknown to me whence 
Mr. Lawrence derives his information, but probably from the same, or a sim- 
ilar source, from which came the veracious statement that the planters, in 
1839, received thirteen cents per pound for their cotton, and it is very pro- 
bably deserving of about the same degree of credit. Baines says that, in 
1833, the value of product from the British mills was £31,338,693; and 
"the cajjital employed," about £34,000,000. Waterons, in 1840, taking 
Baines' statement as a guide, says that, though manufactures had very much 
increased, yet, by reason of quicker returns, &c., capital had not undergone a 
corresponding increase. Here is nothing said about '■'•fixed " and '•'■floating " 
capital — the expression is, " capital employed^'' and which common sense 
would dictate to mean the entire capital. This, however, be it as it may, is 
a matter of little importance to the subject ; for, if the British mill cannot 
be made to equal the amount of its entire capital, ^^ fixed'''' and ^^ floating^'' 
with its annual product, I am fully prepared to show, and to prove, and 
promise to doit in my closing number, to Mr. Lawrence's satisfaction, that an 



Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 11 

American mill can do it. He may bear this in mind, and call me to account, 
if I fail to fulfill the promise to the letter. 

My calculation was to meet my reviewer in this number, on the subject 
of the cost of steam-mills ; amount of capital necessary, quantity of product, 
cost, &c. ; but, as he has devoted his second number, in a great measure, to 
those items, I shall pass over, for the present, Avhat he has said of them in 
his first, until my second number, that they may all come before the reader 
in their proper order, and that the fallacy of his visionary dreamings may be 
the more readily exposed. Let us noAv advert to his groans of agony over 
the hapless fate of the poverty-stricken manufacturers of Lowell, and else- 
where. The present high prices of cotton, and low prices of goods, seem to 
have afflicted him with nightmare. The cry of thirteen cents per pound, 
and six cents per yard, seem to stalk before him like frightful goblins, from 
which he has no means of escape. But, if he could only hear the sound of 
his own voice, he might derive consolation from the accents of his own lips. 
Hear him. The price of cotton, he says, must fell, or the price of goods 
rise, and perhaps both, the coming season. Did you ever ! — as Aunt Charity 
would say ; and yet this same Mr. Lawrence, the gentleman who has said 
this, is troubled almost to death about the high prices of cotton, and is some- 
what testy with me because I have not based my calculations on them, as 
though they had been the average ruling prices for the ten years past, 
and were certain to be^for half a century to come. My respects to the gen- 
tleman — I am not subject to nightmare. 

That some mills are noiv running at small profits, and others at a loss, is 
a fact as well known to me as to him. I will also whisper in his ear another 
fact equally true. There are some mills which always have run, and always 
will run, as long as they run at all, at a small profit ; and there are others, 
which, making little or nothing in the best of times, must lose money when 
the times are close and pinching. But all this is no more the fault of the 
manufacturing business, than it is the fault of wind and sails, that a common 
mud-scow will not cleave the bosom of the sea with the same velocity as the 
clipper-built pilot-boat. But, in order to show that even the best of cotton- 
mills make httle or nothing, Mr. Lawrence gives his readers a list of some 
twenty-four of what he terms " first-class mills," which, according to their 
declared dividends, as copied from their books, have earned, on an average, 
for eleven years j^ast, but little more than 8 per cent per annum on their 
aggregate capital. There may be some difference of opinion as to what con- 
stitutes a first-class mill, and some doubts whether declared dividends always 
represent the amount of profits. If a first-class mill means one that will 
turn off the greatest amount of product, of the best quality, with the smallest 
capital, and the lowest cost, he has not one in his list, as shall be proved, 
beyond the reach of doubt, in ray next number. And then as to dividends — 
what criterion do they afford, by which to judge of the amount of profits ? 
None at all. A company may wield a capital of $300,000, and owe one- 
halfof it. They may earn $150,000 in one year, or 50 per cent on the 
capital; and, instead of declaring a dividend, take the profits to pay the 
debts. There are a great many companies, one of them as wealthy and as 
successful as any in New England, which latter was established in 1808, and 
the others since, which have never declared a dividend ; but all have made 
money. And how with the " first-class" Lowell companies ? Have they di- 
vided all their profits ? Or have they reserved a a'reat proportion of them 
from year to year, to bring up a nominal capital to a real one, and to build 



12 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 

new and extensive cotton-mills, as most of them liave done ? Mr. Lawrence 
has given us no light from the books, on this point. One company, to be 
sure, he tells us, has made a stock dividend this year of 25 per cent, which 
amounts to 1500,000. This money has been expended in the erection of a 
new cotton-mill. This amount, and more, was on hand last year ; but, had 
Mr, Lawrence's statement been made out then, we should have heard nothing 
of it. Is it not true, that vast amounts of profits from Lowell mills have 
thus been reserved and invested, even within ten or five years past, for which 
not even stock dividends have been declared ? If so, what reliance can be 
placed on Mr. Lawrence's columns of declared dividends, as to the amount 
of profits ? Who can tell by them whether the profits have averaged 8 per 
ceut, 18, 28, or 50? Some of these mills are reported, in 1849, with two 
thousand more spindles than in 1845, and so on, up to twelve thousand 
more ; yet they represent no increase of capital stock. How is this, if the 
business has been so extended by means of new subscriptions ? In that case, 
would not the capital stock have been increased in the same ratio? There 
is some hocus-pocus about it, which we leave Mr. Lawrence to explain by 
reference to the " books of the company." If he cannot explain it, there 
are others who can. 

In this number, the attention of the reader will be invited to but one more 
paragraph contained in the review, and that near the commencement of the 
first part, as the calculations which the afiected shrewdness of its writer, be- 
fore alluded to, will be treated of in full hereafter. In that paragraph, he 
says : — " To carry out the plan of withholding cotton," (from the European 
market,) " it will be necessary to obtain the passage of a law imposing an 
export duty. Without this, it would be impossible to prevent it from going 
abroad, as soon as the withdrawal of a portion had produced its eftect of 
raising the price in Europe." Of all the laughable propositions ever made 
by a wise man, no one ever exceeded this in absurdity — no, not even that 
laid down by some other modern Solomon, the extraction of gold from ginger- 
bread. One would think that the southern planter, as a free American citi- 
zen, had the right to withhold his cotton from the European market, if he 
should think proper so to do, without an export duty. The planter, when 
he found he could make more money by working up his cotton, than by 
sending it abroad, would require no prohibitory duty but his own interest to 
induce him to keep it at home. The Yankee farmer requires no prohibition 
to induce him to refrain from sending to market the hay necessary to feed 
his own cattle, and the grain to fatten his own pork. And, as to the southern 
planter, much of a simpleton, and as easily gulled, as Mr. Lawrence appears 
to think him, he knows rather too much to send abroad the cotton required 
for his own cotton spindles, duty or no duty. But Mr. Lawrence intimates 
that the eftect of the withdrawal of a part from the European market would 
be to raise prices in that market, and hence induce the exportation of the 
article. What wonderful sagacity ! Would it not have suggested itself to 
the merest tyro in mercantile aftairs, that, if the European spinner should 
bid up a high price for cotton, the rise in this country would be proportion- 
ate \ Where the benefit to result to the planter from sending abroad, when 
he w ould realize for it, at his own door, as much as it would return him 
from a foreign market, while he would, by retaining it at home, either di- 
rectly or indirectly, participate in the benefits to be derived from its manu- 
facture ? 

A ain : in what way can a British manufacturer compete, now, with the 



Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 13 

manufacturer of New England ? By the manufacture of fabrics requiring 
much hibor, and httle stock. The higher the price of cotton, then, the less 
able will he be to keep up the competition. Were cotton thirty cents per 
pound, instead of ten, in the southern market, now, insurance and commis- 
sions would be 200 per cent higher ; and the same would be true of insu- 
rance and commissions on the transport^ttion and sale of his goods. These 
would become a heavy entry on the wrong side of his ledger, and with which 
he could not compete with the southern manufacturer, whose cotton would, 
in such a case, come at from three to four cents a pound less than it could be 
obtained for by the British spinner. Indeed, at the average plantation value 
of cotton for the last ten years, and Avith " first class " steam " mills," the 
descriptions of cotton goods manufs^ctured in this country could be turned off 
as cheaply as in Manchester, England, and probably at lower rates, and defy 
all British competition in the markets of the world, unless prevented by for- 
eign prohibitory duties ; and the southern people would make a much more 
handsome profit by means of the operation, than by sending their cotton to 
Europe. Increase manufactories as fast as we please, and Mr. Lawrence 
need entertain no distressing apprehensions as to a deficiency in the supply 
of cotton for them. " Our southern friends," having once fj^irly embarked in 
the enterprise, and fully tested its advantages, will not, for the mere purpose 
of accommodating the British manufacturer, send him the stock required 
for their own mills, niaugre all attempts to frighten them out of their prop- 
erty with the stale old sing-song, now republished by Mr. Lawrence for the 
nine hundred and ninety-ninth time, of low dividends and sunken stocks. 

Having now said all that is necessary in this nimiber, we will dismiss the 
subject for the present, with a promise to the reader that in the March num- 
ber of the Magazine, all the estimates called in question by Mr. Lawrence 
shall be confirmed, all his objections answered, and all his fallacies exposed ; 
including that heterogeneous and contradictory tissue of false and deceptive 
statements which almost entirely make up his closing number. 



LETTER II. 

To Freeman Hunt, Esq., Editor of the Merchants' Jfagazine, etc. : — 

Having little time or space to spare for circumlocution, permit me, in contin- 
uation of my rejoinder to Mr. Lawrence, to come directly to the point, in a plain 
and straight-forward manner. In his last number he promises, in the outset, 
to "give some more f^icts," to confirm the conclusions already reached. If 
he had said "some more fallacious statements, to give color to conclusions 
already jumped at," he would have come much nearer to the statement of a 
fact than he has in almost any other statement he has made. Let us pro- 
ceed to examine '^ some more facts" of his, and ascertain how far they will 
stand the test of truth. 

Mr. Lawrence says that he does not admit steam-niill'=! into the " first class," 
because " they have a radical defect ;" hence, it is presumed, he selected 
twenty-six water-mills as the fitting representatives of that order, because 



14 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 

he supposed them to have no " radical defect." One would suppose that a 
" first class cotton-mill " should contain the best machinery, under the most 
perfect arrangement, with the most perfect combinations, and capable of turn- 
ing off the greatest amount of product per spindle in a given time, of the 
best quality, and at the lowest cost. That this perfection and capability can 
be created within the walls of one building as well as of another, without 
respect to the species of poAver to be applied, every man of common sense 
and discernment will at once see and admit. Mr. Lawrence's " radical de- 
fect," then, must exist in reference to steam-power, instead of water-power ; 
and if we can show that steam-mills Avill and do make more goods per spin- 
dle than water mills, in a gi\en time, of better quality, at less cost, and hence 
at a greater profit, we shall show, by the same process, that what he is 
pleased to call " a radical defect," that excludes them from his list of " first 
class mills," is truly an improvement that exalts them above that class. For 
the decision of this question, I rest on facts to be given by and by, and am 
ready to abide the result. For his show of facts.^ Mr. Lawrence has selected 
four steam-mills, which I shall name in the following order : — The Ports- 
mouth Mill, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Globe Mill, James Mill, and Bart- 
lett Mills, Newburyport, and Naumkeag Mill, Salem, Massachusetts. 

Of the Portsmouth Mill, the gentleman says it "was erected in 1845-6, 
after a course of lectures delivered in that town by General James." By 
the omission of any explanatory word, and without even a note of punctu- 
ation in the sentence, the writer has left it fairly to be inferred, under the 
circumstances, that not only the "lectures" were "delivered by General 
James," but also that the mill was built by him. The only comment I shall 
offer on this statement, is, that I neither built nor planned the Portsmouth 
Mill, have had nothing to do with it, and never saw it. The Portsmouth 
people were told by me, what were and still are, my views of the benefits to 
be derived from the operations of cotton-mills in seaport places. Very true, 
the business of the Portsmouth Mill has heretofore proved a feilure. The 
Naumkeag Mill, built at the same period, has made handsome profits. Why 
has not the Portsmouth Mill ? Because, unlike the Naumkeag, it has been 
appropriated to a branch of the manufacturing business new in this country, 
of which there was much to learn. The same difficulty occurred with the 
first attempt to manufacture moiissdine de laines, at Manchester, New Hamp- 
shire, and the losses were so great, that the capital stock of the company 
came down to more than 75 per cent beloio par. Yet the enterprising pro- 
prietors of the Portsmouth Mill, instead of being chuckled at for their losses, 
in the vein of Mr. Lawrence, are worthy of difterent treatment It is grati- 
fying to know that this company has entered into arrangements with the cele- 
brated J. DuNNEL, Esq., for printing their lawns, and, under their present 
management, are doing a good business. 

The business of the Globe Mill may or may not have proved a failure. If 
it has, so has that of many water-mills, in their infancy, in all respects as 
good as Mr. Lawrence's " first class mills." That is no proof of " a radical 
defect in steam mills.'''' The failure of that mill to do a profitable business 
is owing to no such cause, nor is it in the least attributable to me. True, 
the mill was built according to my plan*, though not under my immediate and 
sole supervision. I was employed merely as an engineer ; and the mill was never 
run a single week by me, nor under my direction, nor in accordance with my 
advice, in consequence of the rejection of my counsel in the matter, and 
the determined opposition to all my eftbrts, satisfied that I could exert no 



Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 15 

influence for tlie benefit of the company, I left it to its fate. The fate wliicli 
Mr. Lawrence says overtook it, was predicted by me at the time, in a letter to 
the president and directors. That a profit might have been made by them 
is, however certain ; for, before cutting my connection with the mill, I ottered 
to take it to run on my own account, at a handsome rent, and to give a satis- 
factory guaranty for the fulfilment of the contract on my part. My ofi'er was 
rejected, and if the company has lost money by the mill, that is their fault. 

The James Mill. This mill, Mr. Lawrence says, is " sometimes held up as 
a model for all steam-mills." We will challange him to point out its equal 
among his " first class " water-" mills." He says — " It was put in operation 
in 1843 ;" and partially, it was so ; but was not completed and in full opera- 
tion, till the middle of October, 1845. And still, during the whole time, 
from its first start in 1843, to the date of Mr. Lawrence's article, he admits 
small dividends, regularly, amounting, in all, to 28 per cent. One would 
think this was pretty well, under the circumstances. But what are the facts 
with regard to this mill ? The plan on which it was first projected, included only 
from 5,000 to 6,000 spindles ; and estimates were made accordingly. From 
time to time, as new subscriptions were tendered, the plan was enlarged, until, in 
1845, as above stated, it was completed and put in full operation, with about 
17,000 spindles. Notwithstanding the gentleman's outcry about the excess of 
the cost of this mill over the estimates, yet it is well known that its new stock, to 
the amount of -$50,000, sold at auction in State street, Boston, at a handsome 
per centage above par. In the case of this mill, as in that of others, divi- 
dends do not tell the story about earnings. Since the mill went into opera- 
tion, a new and expensive reservoir has been constructed, and real estate pur- 
chased, ^a/o? /or /rom the earnings ; and, from the same source, an addition 
has been made to its cash capital. For the future, it is very probable, Mr. 
Lawrence may be satisfied with the amount of profits. 

" To show the uncertainty with which estimates are made," Mr. Lawrence 
goes on to state a variety of such, made, as he says, respecting the cost 
of the James Mill. Untrue as most, or all of them are, it is only necessary 
here to point out the Jesuitical course pursued by him, to reach a false con- 
clusion at last, and to leave a false impression on the minds of his readers. 
Eecollect — the gentleman, had already said that the James Mill had 17,000 
spindles ; but, in detailing what he calls the estimates, he only comes up to 
11,000 which were to cost $189,000, but which were found to have cost over 
$250,000. Now, the truth is, the entire mill, with nearly 17,000 spindles, in 
complete operation, cost something short of -$245,000 ; or more than $5,000 
less than he has put down for 11,000. What dependence can be placed on 
any statement from such a source ? The dividends amount to 30 per cent, 
instead of 28, as stated by Mr. Lawrence. 

In saying that neither the James nor Naumkcag Mills had paid simple in- 
terest to its stockholders, Mr. Lawrence, in a note, says the Bartlett Mills, 
built before the others named, " have been more successful," though they 
cost $334,000, instead of $265,000, which is the first estimate. Have any 
of Mr. Lawrence's " first class mills " been more successful than the Bartlett, 
from their commencement ? This question he did not choose to decide, be- 
cause, forsooth, " steam-mills have a radical def ct," which excludes them 
from his " first class." By the way — Bartlett Mill No. 1 was erected before 
I saw it, and before I had anything to do with it, or with the company ; and 
I was employed merely as an engineer, to fill it with machinery, and put it in 
operation, and, as agent, to run it. Mill No. 2 was planned, constructed, 



16 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 

and started by me, and run under my directions for a length of time. Lest 
the gentleman should go otf in a paroxism, in contemplation of the fright- 
ful excess of $69,000 in this case over the estimate, as he says, I would con- 
sole him with two '•'■ more facts'''' in connection with it. One is, that a good 
deal more was added to the expenditure on the buildings, &c., than had been 
contemplated, at the instance of William Bartlett, Esq., a very large stock- 
holder, and who refused to have anything to do Avith the business unless he 
could be gratified in that respect. The other is, that there are 2,000 spin- 
dles more in the mills than the original designs and estimates included. Mr. 
Lawrence, if he did not know these facts, might have learned them, but he 
seems not to have cared much about collecting " more facts^'' unless they were 
such as would help to " confirm the conclusions " which he liad " already 
reached.^'' 

The Naumkeag Mill is another of Mr. Lawrence's subjects of animadver- 
sion, which he says was built at a cost very wide of its estimate, and which, 
though a " very fine mill," has not paid the stockholders simple interest (6 
per cent) on the investment. Notwithstanding all this assurance, Mr. Law- 
rence is altogether wrong in the matter. The same process that will prove 
this, will also fully show that the Portsmouth and Globe steam-mills, built 
at the same time with the Naumkeag, might have been made profitable es- 
tablishments. He says the Naumkeag Mill contains 24,000 spindles. Cut 
he ought to have known that it contains something over 31,000 spindles. 
Were it true, as he says, that the mill cost '^080,000, with its appurtenances, 
then, with 24,000 spindles, its cost would have been $281 per spindle. But, 
containing, as it does, 31,000 spindles and upward, the cost per spindle 
would be reduced to a fraction less than $22. This is not a very trifling er- 
ror, inasmuch as it would make a difference of more than $60,000 in the 
cost of a steam-mill of 10,000 spindles. But Mr. Lawrence does not seem to 
have an eye to scan these small items. The Naumkeag Mill, with its appurten- 
ances, did not, however, cost $680,000. I am sorry to be under the neces- 
sity of so frequently conti-adicting Mr. LawTence ; but a writer who values 
his self-complacency, to say nothing of his credit, should be somewhat care- 
ful how he deals with truth. 

On the 19th of January, 1848, when the mill had been completed and 
put into full operation, and the bills, contracts, &c., gathered in, the annual 
report was made to the president and directors of the company, and in which 
were specified the various items of cost, and their amount. The footings of 
the amount was $621,199yVo; ^^ing about $00,000 less than Mr. Law- 
rence's statement. Again : in the above amount of $621,199jyi5- is included 
valuable real estate connected with that on which the mill is situated, but 
constituting no part of its a))puitenances, and in no respect necessary to it. 
The president and directors appointed an intelligent committee, who, after 
due deliberation, fixed on this redundant property the value of $56,483fyg. 
This valuation has since been reaffirmed. Deduct this from the full amount 
as above, .and you leave, as the actual cost of the Naumkeag Mill, with its 
appurtenances, $564,7 ISyVg-, instead of $680,000, as Mr. Lawrence has it, 
and making a difference against Ms facts^ of no less than $115,000 ! But 
he sjDeaks of the excess of cost, in this case, over the estimates. On this 
point, to satisfy the gentleman, if possible, I will here present a brief extract 
or two from the above-named report. The report says : — 

" Li a work of such magnitude, and when so much remained to be done, it 
will hardly be considered matter of surprise that an exact estimate should 



Culture mid Manufacture of Cotton. 17 

not have been formed, and especially as one is liable to under estimate out- 
lays, in his anxiety not to surpass the limits he prescribes to himself." Tlie 
excess ofcost over the estimate was, as stated in the report, "12 per cent;" 
but this excess included the above amount of $5 6,4 8 3 y^^^, the value of the 
property owned by the company, and not an appurtenance to the mil. 
Again : the report says — " since that report (January, 1847) was made, sun- 
chy expenses have occurred, not then anticipated, and most of them heavy. 
For instance, the company has caused to be erected a large store-house for 
cotton, cipable of containing a full stock for a year. All the tools and fix- 
tures of a machine-shop have been purchased, including a steam-engine. Ad- 
ditional reservoirs for water have been formed, and a force-pump, hydrants, 
and a large quantity of iron pipes furnished, for the extinguishment of fires. 
A hydraulic press has been constructed, many valuable improvements made 
in the machinery, &c. The cost of all these has been heavy, and did not 
enter into the former estimate, though now included in the present statement 
of the actual cost," &c. After this report had been accepted, it was printed 
by the direction of the president, and widely circulated. 

This mill is the largest in the world, in which the entire process of con- 
verting cotton into cloth is carried on under one roof The undertaking 
was a gigantic one, and in much of its machinery there was combined, no- 
velty in construction, combination and arrangement. Under such circumstan- 
ces it will be deemed hardly surprising to any one but Mr. Lawrence that an 
exact original estimate should nut have been made. He speaks, however, 
of the original subscriptions having been swallowed up and new ones called 
for, &c., as though the mill and its appurtenances as first contemplated, 
were as they now are in reality ; but, with his usual candor, he somehow 
forgets to state that a much smaller mill was originally contemplated, and 
that increased subscriptions were called for in consequence of its increased 
size. But that others more directly interested in this work than he is, are 
much better satisfied ; I give in proof, below, a letter from the President of 
the Company, Hon. David Pingree, of Salem, Massachusetts. Perhaps 
Mr. Lawience may know something about such a gentleman. 

Salem, January 17, 1850. 
Gen. Charles T. James. 

Dear Sir : — Your esteemed favor of yesterday is received. And in reply, I 
can say that the Naumkeag Mill has come up to all you promised, both as to the 
quantity of production, and the cheapness of manufacturing. I have preserved 
the statement you gave me as to the cost of manufacturing ; and the cost, for the 
last six months, has been less, and the production more, than your estimate. And 
the stockholders are satisfied that you gave them as good a mill as can be found 
in the United States, if not the best. Anything farther you wish to know as to 
the mill, it will give me pleasure to communicate, as I have no wish to detract 
from the merits which so deservedly belong to you. 

Yours truly, 

DAVID PINGREE. 

On the above letter I have no other comment to make than to say, what Mr. 
Lawrence well knows that its writer is one of the heaviest stockholders in the 
" Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company," and occupies a place in the first 
rank as a gentleman and a man of business. Mr. Lawrence says, hoAvever, that 
the Naumkeag Mill has not paid to the stockholders six per cent on their 
investments, and that no considerable amount of their stock can be sold in 
market, except at a per centage below par, equal to the amount of dividends 
2 



18 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton, 

paid. What lias that to do with the earnings of the mill ? Of course the 
stock would hardly be expected to be up to par, as long as about one-half 
its earnings go to make up its capital ; and such is the case. Yet few, in- 
deed, of the stocks of liis twenty-six " first class mills," some of them, as 
he says, with $200,000 of surplus cash capital on hand, and all of them 
with some, will sell even as well as that. According to his story, the stock 
of the Naumkeag Mill cannot be more than twelve per cent below par, 
while most of those of his first class mills are twelve per cent below, and 
even more than that ; and some of them twenty, twenty-five, and so on up 
to forty per cent. Yet the Naumkeag Company reserve profits to add 
$200,000 to cash capital, while in those first class establishments, all of 
them, he says, there is some surplus cash capital, and in some of them 
$200,000. Suppose the Naumkeag Company had $200,000 surplus, how 
long would it take to bring the stock up to twelve per cent above par, in- 
stead of its remaining at twelve per cent below, as he says ? But, does the 
Naumkeag Mill earn no more than six per cent per annum on the invest- 
ments ? Unfortunately again for Mr. Lawrence the truth is antagonist to 
hh facts, as the following official exhibit will fully show : — 

" The net earnings for the year past, after paying upwards of $28,000 for in- 
terest, repairs, and new machinery, have amounted to $82,390 — not one dollar 
has been charged to " construction" account for the year's operations. A divi- 
dend of four per cent has been declared for the past six months, and a surplus 
reserved fund is left, amounting to $48,500. The last year's dividend has been 
eight per cent. 

The dividends amounted to $56,000 ; which, being added to $48,500, the 
amount of profits reserved, makes up the sum of $104,500 as the net earn- 
ings of the year. Thus Mr. Lawrence will perceive that, instead of less than 
simple interest, six per cent, the Naumkeag Mill, last year, earned but a 
fraction less than fifteen per cent over and above all cost3 and expenses. 
Again, this mill was not completed and put in full operation till the 1st of 
January, 1848 ; yet, even in 1847, while it was yet in progress, the portions 
of machinery put in operation from time to time earned enough over cost 
and expenses, to pay interest at six per cent on all assessments paid in. In 
1848 the earnings of the mill were equal to those of 1849 ; and the capital 
on which the profits have been made, includes more than $56,000 for pro- 
perty already named of no service whatever to the mill. Thus, instead of 
less than six per cent on the investments, as Mr. Lawrence says, the Naum- 
keag Mill has netted, at least, double the average per cent of the twenty-six 
'"'■ first class millsP So much again for the accuracy of Mr. Lawrence's 
facts ; and yet, in 1847, besides great loss by delays in obtaining machinery, 
&c., the company sufiered a loss of $10,000 by the decline in the price of 
cotton. This statement the gentleman can compare with his own and make 
his own comments. He confines his remarks on steam-mills, to the Ports- 
mouth Mill and five others with which I have been in some way connected. 
He shall now be enlightened in relation to a few others. 

Between the commencement of the year 1843, and the close of 1845, 
two mills were erected at Gloucester, N. J., under the direction of some of 
the best talent in Massachusetts for the business. These were steam-mills, 
and are known by the name of " Washington Mills" Nos. 1 & 2. 

These mills were equal to the average of the twenty-six ^'■fi.rst class mills," 
and to the avernge of the mills now running in New England ; but thei 
proprietors became dissatisfied with them, and in 1848 they contracted with 



Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 19 

me to overliaul, repair, and re-arrange mill No. 1, The work having been 
completed, the mill was again started with the same engine and machinery 
it contained before ; and the following statements from the books will show 
the results. The first statement includes the work of the mill for six months, 
ending April 30th, 1847, prior to the changes effected in it, and is as 
follows : — 

Cloth manufoctured, 186,490 pounds, or 1,006,430 yards. 
Cost of manufacturing, $63,645 32. 

Cost per pound, 34 13-100 cents. Cost per yard, 6 32-100 cents. 
The goods were shirtings and print cloths. No. 30. 

The second statement embraces the work of the same mill for six montlis, 
ending April 30th, 1849, after the alterations, &c., and is as follows : — 

Cloth manufactured, 282,775 pounds, or 1,645,430 yards. 
Cost of manufiicturing, $72,240 20. 
Cost per pound, 25 54-100 cents, or 4 39-100 per yard. 
The goods were shirtings and print cloths, No. 36. 

It will be seen that the difference, or saving, per yard, in favor of the lat- 
ter six months over the former, was lyVo cent per yard ; making, in the cost 
of manufacturing, the entire quantity of 1,645,440 yards, the difference of 
131,756-j-Vo- in favor of the latter six months, or at the rate of |63,513yYo per 
annum. From this amount, however, is to be deducted $1 0,000, as the difference 
in the cost of cotton manufactured in the mill in 1847 and 1849, lea\dng the 
actual difference in the practical working of the mill, in favor of the latter 
year, $53,513yYo- This difference more than remunerated the proprietors 
for the entire outlay for the alterations. The fineness of the yarn was in- 
creased 20 per cent from No. 30 to No. 36. One-eighth was added to the 
number of spindles, and the number of looms was reduced so as to equahze 
the machinery. Thus, not only has the cost been reduced in the manufac- 
ture of the goods, but a much more valuable article produced. I have said 
this mill was, before the changes effected in it, as good as the average of Mr. 
Lawrence's " first class mills." Their dividends, he says, averaged a fraction 
less than 9 per cent last year. The above mill has a capital of $250,000. 
He may take the above statements respecting it, and make his own calcula- 
tions. True, to make the mill what it now is, something more than $40,000 
has been expended. But that is not my fault. A mill as good, in all re- 
spects, as that now is, and of the same capacity, can be built for the sum 
which that cost at first. Since the Washington Company, to which the 
abqve mill belongs, has realized the great advantages resulting from the 
change, the president and directors have put their other mill into my hands, 
which has now neaiiy undergone a similar change, and is nearly ready to 
start anew. Thus Mr. Lawrence will see that, if he and his friends cannot 
be satisfied with any of my representations, there are those who are satisfied 
with my doings. AVe will now take up my statement in the November num- 
ber, as to the actual results of the working of a cotton-mill of 10,000 spin- 
dles, for a year. I will copy this statement, with a correction of the error of 
$10,000 in the footing : — 

Cotton (1,800,000 lbs.) at *? cents ?1126,000 

Cost of steam-power 4,500 

" carding 13,266 

" spinning 14,7S4 

" dressing and starch 9,086 

" weaving, inchiding all expenses 26,598 



20 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 

Cost of repairs, wear and tear, machinists, &.c 17,002 

" general expenses, officers' salaries, transportation, &c 20,642 

" interest on capital of ?250,000 15,000 

Making a total of $247,048 

Against this total, we have 4,500,000 yards of cloth, (No. 14 sheetings,) at 

7i cents per yard 326,250 

And we find a balance, in favor of manufacturing, of f 79,202 

jNIr. Lawrence doubts the occuiTcnce of such results, and calls for the name 
of the mill. I am quite happy to be able to gratify the gentleman, and will 
give him a few '•'"inor-e facts to confirm the conclusions already reached.'''' In 
the first place, however, let me jiremise, it was not stated by me that this 
mill was " in New England," nor that he knew anything about it. In the 
next place, as already stated, the price of the cotton was assumed, not as the 
price at that mill, but as a high average country price at the southern mill. 
The quantity of cloth manufactured, and the price per yard it sold at, were 
greater than stated by me, and the expense and cost of manufacturing less, 
or at least they have been so since that statement was first made out, as I am 
ready to prove beyond doubt. Thus shall my statement be made good, and 
even enlarged. 

If Mr. Lawrence will shut out from his view, for a moment, the vision of 
Lowell, Lawrence, ifec, and take a peep with me into the city of Lancaster, 
Pennsylvania, he shall there find what he demands. In that city, a company 
erected, under my supervision, and in strict accordance with my plans, in 
1844-5, a steam cotton-mill, called the " Conestoga Steam-Mill No. I ;" 
and so well were the proprietors satisfied with the doings of this mill, that 
they employed me to construct the second, which has recently been put in 
operation. I am now engaged on the third, which will be ready to go into 
operation in July next. These mills will contain 25,000 spindles, and the 
company has a capital stock of ^1^500,000. They are designed for the man- 
ufacture of sheetings No. 14, fine sheetings and shirtings, drillings, tickings, 
cotton flannels, chambrays, &c. These are the first cotton-mills erected in 
that vicinity, and nearly all the help has been obtained there, and instructed 
in the mills, in the routine of the labors of operatives. From the first start 
of mill No. 1., the company has regularly made semi-annual dividends of 5 
per cent, or 10 per cent per annum ; and the dividend, for the last six 
months, was made on mills No. 1 and No. 2, though the latter had then 
scarcely gone into full operation. It is to the " Conestoga Mill No. 1 " that 
I now wish to call attention, that being the mill on the doings of which, 
up to June, 1849, the foregoing statement of quantity, cost, <fec., was founded. 
Mr. Lawrence now has the "wame" of the mill. 

First, as to the quantity of cloth. My statement was 4,500,000 yards 
per annum, for 10,000 spindles. The quantity Mr. Lawrence doubts. David 
Longnecker, Esq., has, at my request, kindly furnished me with data from 
the books of the company, respecting quantity, cost, (fee, for the six months 
ending December 31st, 1849. He is treasurer of the company, and I hold 
myself responsible for the accuracy of his statements. " Conestoga Mill No. 
1 " hjis 6,236 spindles. During the six months above alluded to, it turned 
off l,422,064f yards, which would make 2,844,1 29^ yards per annum. At 
that rate, it will be readily seen, 10,000 spindles would turn off" 4,560,690 yards, 
or an excess of 60,690 yards inore than stated by me. This will certainly more 
than sustain my statement as to quantity. The quantity of cotton named by me 



Culture and Manufacture of Cotton, 21 

was 1,800,000 lbs., at the rate {for the southern mill) of Y cents per pound. 
But the cloth would fall short of that weight, by reason of waste, about 9 
per cent. The cloth, therefore, would weigh but 1,666,666 lbs. This would 
bring the cotton up to YjYo- cents per pound of cloth. My statement would 
make all cost and expenses, cotton excepted, l-^-io cents per pound of cloth ; 
and with the cotton, 14j®^2_ cents. I am fully authorized by Mr. Longnecker 
to say that the cost of manufacturing, cotton excepted, has been less than in 
my statement. The cloth is, as stated by me, or implied in my statement, 
^tVo yfirds to the pound of cotton, including waste. Thus am I fully sus- 
tained, and more, with respect to the cost and expenses. And now, for the 
price of the cloth in market, Mr. Lawrence complained that I set the price 
as high as 7^- cents per yard, because, as he said, the same kind of goods 
were selling, when he wrote, or had been, at only 5yVo cents per yard. To 
gratify the gentleman, I have, fi'om Mr. Longnecker, the assurance that, for 
six months ending December 31, 1849, the Conestoga sheetings had aver- 
aged, as the proceeds of sales, a fraction over eight cents per yard, and 
that, before any advantage could of course be taken of the recent rise in 
market. At present, all those goods are sold at 9f to 10 cents. Thus, 
again, am I more than sustained in respect to price and amount of proceeds. 
Will Mr. Lawrence have the goodness to take the trouble to make out a cal- 
culation on the basis of the above items furnished by Mr, Longnecker, and 
satisfy himself, and inform the public, how much per pound the Conestoga 
Company can afford to pay for cotton, and how much a southern mill can 
make by its manufacture,, even were it to cost 8 cents per pound, instead of 
7 ? For the truth of all the above, IMr. Lawi-ence may, should he think 
proper, visit and examine the Conestoga Steam-Mill, and appeal to the treas- 
urer of the company. Farther than this, I pledge myself to exhil)it to that 
gentleman, if he will accompany me to Lancaster, a mill (Conestoga No. 2) 
that will do better, as to product, by fifteen per cent, than what is stated 
above of mill No. 1. Is he satisfied ? But still he may continue to harp on the 
present high price of cotton, and insist that, under present circumstances, no 
mill which has its cotton to purchase can make money. Let him take com- 
fort. His own prediction is, in one respect, rapidly being accomplished, for 
the market value of goods is fast advancing, and a short period will probaVjly 
suffice to bring them up to fair comparative rates. Such, at least, is the 
present prospect. As yet, but little new cotton has been manufactured, and 
the disposal of all the goods made from the old stock, must effect a great 
change. 

Office of the Conestoga Steam Mills, 
Lancaster, Penn., February 4, 1850. 
Gen. C. T. James, 

Dear Sir : — Yours of the 26th ult. is received, and, in reply we have to say, 
that the statements made by you to the committee of the stockholders, prior to 
the erection of the mills, have been verified. The product of the cloth in quan- 
tity has exceeded your promises; and the quality, our best expectations. 
We are respectfully, yours, &c., 

C. HAGER, Prrsidrnf. 

DAVID LONGNECKER, ^gent. 

A steam cotton-mill was built by me in 1845, for Messrs, Kennedy, Child?, 
& Co., Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. It contains 5,910 sjnndles, and the results 
of its operations have been similar to those of the Conestoga Mill No. 1, 
already ref^'rred to. In a letter from the above-named gentlemen to me, 
dated January 22d, 1850, they say : — " Your highest estimate never exceeded 



22 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 

our product. So far as the working of our mill is concerned, we take pleas- 
ure in saying that it comes up fully to our anticipations, and gives entire sat- 
isfaction. And we are not aware that you have made any statement in ref- 
erence thereto, which practical results and experience have not fully sus- 
tained." 

Testimonials like the foregoing might be multiplied, but these are deemed 
sufficient. Somehow it happens — perhaps Mr. Lawrence's philosophy is com- 
petent to account for it — my time is too fully occupied to allow me a mo- 
ment of leisure, notwithstanding all his frightful stories about excess of cost, 
over estimates, bad business, small dividends, actual losses, &c. Pereons 
who negotiate with me for building mills, are always referred by me to those 
who have already employed my services in that line, and, after all due in- 
quiry, they return, and contract with me, even at higher rates than others 
demand. Those who employ me once, fail not to do so again, when similar 
services are required. How is this ? Perhaps Mr. Lawrence can determine. 
It is, or is not, because the steam-mills built by me, notwithstanding the sup- 
positions "radical defect" of Mr. Lawrence, are superior to his '■'■ first class 
mills!''' Let us now proceed to speak of the quality of the goods manufac- 
tured by the steam-mills constructed by me, in order to learn something of 
the class to which they actually belong. As one proof of the superiority of 
these goods over others, a fact well known to almost every one, and as well 
known to Mr. Lawrence as to any other one, they, as a general thing, com- 
mand higher prices in market. It is thus that a discriminating public has, 
with common consent, awarded to them a character, of which Mr. Lawrence 
and his compeers cannot deprive them. He will not deny this fact, or if he 
should have the hai dihood to do it, I appeal to the markets themselves. Be- 
sides this, there are some other facts which go to substantiate my claims to 
this character. 

At the exhibition of the " Charitable Mechanic Association," at Bos- 
ton, in September, 1839, the committee made the following report on goods 
from the " Wessacumcon (now Bartlett) Steam-Mills, Newburyport :" — 

" This is an establishment lately erected upon the principle of the best Man- 
chester Mills, the first of any importance that has been started in the United 
States, and must soon lead to correct estimates of the advantages of steam over 
water power. The goods here exhibited are of a very superior order, remark- 
ably even and closely wove ; and altogether of a better febric than has ever been 
before produced in this country. They are in all respects equal to any British 
fabric of the kind that the committee has ever seen." The award was a Silver 
Medal. The Boot Mills, of Mr. Lawrence's " first class," were competitors, 
and their goods were spoken of as having sufficient proof of their good qualities, 
&c. The award was a Diploma. 

At the next exhibition of the above association, in September, 1841, 
bleached and brown sheetings were again entered from the Bartlett Mill No. 
2. Of them the committee say : — 

" These goods possess great beauty and excellence. The spinning and weav- 
ing are very perfect. In firmness and evenness of fabric, and appearance in all 
respects, they surpass any cottons of American Manufacture that the committee 
have ever examined ; and they have seldom, if ever, seen them excelled by the 
most beautiful specimens of British production." The award was a Gold 
Medal. 

The next exhibition of this association took place at Boston, in September, 
1844. At this exhibition, eleven pieces of cotton goods, some brown and 
some bleached, were entered from the Bartlett Mills. The committee pro- 



Culture and ManufoLcture of Cotton. 23 

nounced them " fair specimens of the goods constantly manufactured by this 
company," and awarded them a Silver Medal. Specimens of brown and 
bleached goods were entered from the James Steam-Mill, Newburyport. The 
committee say of them : — 

" The brown goods were very superior, and the best the committee have ever 
examined ; smooth, substantial, and well manufactured ; made from No 40 yam, 
130 picks to the inch. The bleached goods were of the same fabric, &c. A 
better quality of yarn, either in point of smoothness or strength, cannot be man- 
ufactured. As a whole, the committee do not hesitate to pronounce these to be 
the best goods for fineness of texture, service, and appearance, manufactured in 
this country." The award was a Gold Medal. 

The next exhibition of this association, and the last which has taken place, 
was in September, 1847. Brown and bleached goods were again entered 
from the James Mill. Of them the committee say : — 

" The samples submitted to our inspection, embrace goods of different de- 
grees of fineness, and all the useful widths. AU are well made ; and some spe- 
cimens excell all others in perfection of manufacture, &c. They award to this 
lot of cottons, a superiority to any submitted to their notice ; and feel it cause 
for gratulation, that, in this department, they are unrivalled." A gold medal 
having been awarded the James Mill, in 1844, the committee now awarded a 
Diploma. 

At the same exhibition were presented goods from the Naumkeag Steam- 
Mill, Salem, Massachusetts. Of these the committee say : — 

" These cottons differ from those of most other manuftictories, and combine 
more good qualities, for general consumption, than any others. Being made of 
good stock, and superior yarn, and being very weighty, (for the fineness,) they 
cannot but commend themselves to every good house-wife, and will speedily ac- 
quire the reputation they deserve." The award was a Silver Medal. 

From the above extracts it will be perceived that some one or more of the 
steam-mills built by me at Salem and Newburyport, and operated under, or 
in accordance with my direction or my views, have been competitors for pre- 
miums at each exhibition of the Massachusetts Mechanic Charitable Institu- 
tion, since 1839, inclusive. 

" In every instance their goods have been honored with the declaration of 
the committee, that they were superior to all others within their knowledge, 
and with the highest premiums. This should certainly be admitted as pretty 
strong and valid proof of the superiority of the mills themselves. But this is not 
all. The challenge from these steam-mills, to the trial of the question of supe- 
riority, has not been limited to Boston. It has been carried into the great com- 
mercial emporium of the Union. From 1839 to 1847, inclusive, one or more of 
them has been found as competitor with others, each year, at the Fairs of the 
American Institute." 

And, on every occasion, the goods from some one of these mills have been 
pronounced the best of their kind, and borne off the prize. During that 
period, there have been awarded to these mills, from the American Institute, 
in addition to those awarded at Boston, three Gold Medals, three Silveu 
Medals, and three Diplomas. The Gonestoga Steam-Mill Comjiany, at Lan- 
caster, already named, also received a Silver Medal from the same institute, 
in 1848, for the best heavy sheetings, having been awarded a Gold Medal 
for a similar aiticle, in 1847, by the "Franklin Institute," Philadelphia. 

The following is from the Franklin Institute : — 

" The heavy brown sheetings from the Conestoga Steam-Mills are, in the 
opinion of the committee, the very perfection of that order of goods. They pos- 



24 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 

sess the elements of great durability, with an evenness and beauty of fabric and 
finish altogether unapproached. We recommend a first premium." A Gold 

Medal. 

Such is the testimony given by well-informed committees, from year to 
year, as to the quality of our steam-mill goods ; and even in tlie article of 
cotton duck, the Rockport Steam- Mill, erected by me, produced an article, 
and still produces it, pronounced in the American Institute, in 1848, superior 
to all others of the kind. The award was a Silver Medal. These facts, 
added to that befoi-e stated, that the steam-mil! goods alluded to sell at higher 
prices in market than goods from the water-mills, certainly show that they 
ai*e sujierior, in respect to the quality of their productions. 

With regard to estimates of cost for steam-mills, I shall not bandy words 
with Mr. Lawrence. There is a shorter and more satisfactory way to come 
to the point, without the necessity of wearying the reader with the dry de- 
tails of items. lie says that a steam-mill with 10,000 spindles, with store- 
house and tenements, will cost about $2*70,000, and require a floating capital 
of $130,000 ; making an aggregate capital of $400,000. The gentleman is 
probably aware that I have built a considerable number of steam-mills, and 
have some five or six others now in hand, in various stnges of progression. 
He may probably therefore be willing to accord to me nearly as much know- 
8[dge, with respect to their cost, as he possesses himself. Of late I have 
built, and prefer to build, by contract ; furnishing a mill of a certain capacity, 
for so much money, and warranting it to do a certain amount of ivork, and 
am satisfied with my compensation. 

In making estimates of the cost of cotton-mills, especially of steam-mills, 
the capital necessary to be employed, the cost of manufacturing, and the pro- 
fits to be realized, it will not answer to draw on the past. More especially 
is this remark true in its application to the South, where mills to carry on the 
business to any great extent, are yet to come into existence. Mr. Lawrence 
gives his testimony to the rapid improvement in machinery, (kc, and it may 
here be added, with quite as much truth, that improvement in facilities for 
the manufacture of the machinery itself, has advanced with equally rapid 
strides. When, therefore, he sets down the cost of a steam-mill with 10,000 
spindles at $270,000, with its storehouse and tenements, if he takes present 
prices for his guide, he is wide of the truth. But as to tenements — they 
constitute, properly speaking, no part of manufacturing capital. Mill-owners 
may, if they ]>]ease, like other persons, erect dwellings to rent. On water- 
courses, where there are neither cities, towns, or villages, to furnish them, it 
becomes, perhaps, necessary. But, even in that case, their cost is no portion 
of manufactuiing capital. They are rented. The rents are paid from the 
earnings of the operatives, and the cost of cotton, and the cost of its manu- 
facture, is neither enhanced nor diminished by it. It is merely so much cap- 
ital, that might otherwise be emjiloyed in manutiicturing, diverted to another 
object. It curtails the means of the manufacturer to prosecute his business 
— granted ; and on that point I have always and strenuously insisted. 

One of the advantages to be gained by the use of steam-power, as uni- 
formly stated by me, is, that with it, cotton-mills may be placed where you 
want them ; if you ]ilease, in cities, towns, and villages, where there are al- 
ready plenty of dwellings and boarding-houses for operatives, and where, if 
necessary, owneis of real estate are ever ready to increase them. There the 
amount they cost will not be diverted from manufacturing purposes. For the 
foregoing reasons, the cost of tenements are never taken into my estimates. 



Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 25 

That I am fully borne out in this view, almost universal usage, in this country 
at least, will abundantly show. The Naumkeag Company, at Salem, chose to 
have boarding-houses. They erected them. There are six steam-mills at 
Newburyport, one at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, three or four at Provi- 
dence, three at New])ort, two at Bristol, and one at Warren, Rhode Island, 
three at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and so on ; and yet it is believed there are 
neither boarding-houses nor tenements for operatives, owned or needed by 
either of the companies to any extent. In estimating the cost and capital 
for steam-mills, therefore, I make no account of them. 

That, taking the cost of some of Mr. Lawrence's " first class mills " as 
guides, a steam-mill, with 10,000 spindles, tenements, &c., would cost near 
.^270,000, is quite likely ; but steam-mills can be built at much smaller cost 
at this time than they could have been a few years since, and at a cost much 
less than that of water-mills now. Take, for example, the Atlantic Mill, at 
Lawrence. I know the cost of that mill, and will come under bonds, loith 
satisfactory guaranties, to build a steam-mill of the same capacity, luith the 
same number of sjnndles, for tivo-thirds of the money which that mill cost. 
The steam-mill shall be furnished with everything complete, put in order for 
successful operation, and warranted to turn of, in a given time, more goods, 
of better quality, and at smaller cost, cotton only excepted. On the same 
conditions, I will take for a guide, as to size, number of spindles, and de- 
scription of goods, the Prescott Mill, the last mill erected at Lowell for coarse 
goods. These offers are made in good faith, and I pledge my honor to re- 
deem the promise, whenever called on to do so. With respect to the mill 
of 10,000 spindles, with the capital set down by me at $250,000, and re- 
specting which Mr. Lawrence seems so thoroughly skeptical, permit me to 
say — I am ready to contract with Mr. Lawrence, or any other person or com- 
pany, to construct such a mill, to furnish it with everything complete, in a 
convenient location to prevent extraordinary expenditure, to put it in order 
for successful operation, and warrant it to produce the result I have stated, as to 
Cjuantity, fineness, quality, and cost of production, cotton excepted, with the 
capital already named. As respects, therefore, any estimates, real or im- 
aginary, made by Mr. Lawrence, myself, or any one else, heretofore, their 
correctness or incorrectness is a matter of no moment, as respects the question 
at issue. I hold myself bound to carry out, when called on to do so, the 
statement made by me, and confirmed by data from the books of the Con- 
estoga Steam Cotton Mill No. 1 — this statement being, of course, always 
subject to variation, as to profits, with the variations in the relative values of 
cloth and cotton. 

On looking back to the commencement of the cotton manufacturing bu- 
siness in New England, and tracing its progress up to the present period, 
we shall find that our manufacturers have had difficulties to contend with, 
which the people of the South will not have to overcome. The business, at 
that period, was in its infancy, even in England. The machinery introduced 
here was very imperfect in form, finish, and operation. From that time to 
this, there has been kept up a continual race of improvement, which has ren- 
dered the expenditure of vast sums of money necessary to those who have 
kept up with the times ; while those who have refused to do so, have either 
broken themselves down by a spurious economy, or, at best, ploded on with 
little profit. The southern people will enter the field with all these improve- 
ments ready made to their hands ; and, what is also of vast importance to 
them, the new and improved machinery can, at this day, be had at smaller 



26 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 

cost than could have been that of former days, even but a few years since. 
Take, also, into account, the advantage of more than 20 per cent, on an av- 
erage, which the manufacturers of the South will have over those of the 
North, in the cost of cotton at Lowell, and no good reason can be assigned 
why the former should not find the business more profitable than the latter. 
The difl:erence in cost of cotton alone will pay more than 6 per cent per an- 
num on the capital employed, even if that difference were but one cent per 
pound. If the southern people cannot, under such circumstances, manufac- 
ture their cotton at a very handsome profit, certainly no other people can live 
by the business. We will now pay some attention to Mr. Lawrence's re- 
marks on the comparative cost of steam and water-power. 

From the facts already stated, it is very evident that the comparative cost 
of motive-power to drive the machinery of a cotton-mill is a question of no 
importance in this discussion, as relates to my estimates and statements. My 
proposition is, the manufacture of a certain number of yards of cloth, of a 
certain descrii^tion, in a year, at a certain cost per yard. I have shown, by 
incontrovertible data, that the quantity named by me has been exceeded, 
and the goods manufactured at a cost per yard even less than I stated. The 
cost of manufacturing embraced the cost of steam-power. I will now state, 
and challenge the trial, that in the whole number of Mr. Lawrence's twenty- 
six first class mills, there is not one which can turn off as many yards per 
spindle, in a oiven time, of cloth of the same description and quality, as the 
Conestoga Mill No. 1, nor at a cost as low. They are water-mills ; and I 
claim, and I have the right to claim, as will be by me shown, that a portion 
of the saving in cost by the Conestoga Mill is made by the use of steam- 
power. But we will not rest on this view of the case, and, to do away with 
all cavil on the subject, will go into a comparative estimate of the cost of the 
two motive-powers, giving facts in evidence. 

To make out a case, Mr. Lawrence lias obtained of Mr. James B. Francis, 
a letter, in which are contained some remarks on the cost of water and steam- 
power in Scotland. It is somewhat singular that the gentleman should have 
to cross the Atlantic to find out the diflerence between the cost of water- 
power at Lowell, and steam-power at Salem, and respecting which he has, it 
appears, learned nothing by means of his Scottish tour. He makes a com- 
parison, it is true, and sets down figures, showing the difference between the 
cost of water at Greenock, and what he assumes as the cost of water-power 
at Lowell ; but when he comes to speak of steam-power in America, all the 
light he deigns to give us on the subject is — " Taking into the account that 
coal in any part of Massachusetts costs at least three times as much as at 
Greenock, it will be readily seen that the cost of steam-power in Massachusetts 
is enormously greater than the rates paid at Lowell." This is a very sum- 
mary and convenient mode by which to dispose of an argument, to be sure, 
but neither a very logical nor convincing one. What has Greenock to do 
with the business ? And why did not either Mr. Francis or Mr. Lawrence 
give us some data on which this conclusion is founded ? Why, Mr. Lawrence 
cannot find a water-mill and a steam-mill situated side by side in this coun- 
try, to compare with each other, and so he sends a friend to Scotland, in or- 
der to make a comparison of the cost of water-power in that country, and 
places only a trifling distance apart, some thirty-five hundred miles, only, 
and, without a single inquiry about the actual cost of steam-power here or 
there, arrives at once at what he supposes " readily seen," that, because 
" coal costs three times as much in Massachusetts as at Greenock," steam 
power must be enormously dearer than water-power at Lowell ! As good 



Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 27 

old Dominie Sampson would have said, " F-r-o-di-r/i-ous /" Mr. Francis or 
Mr. Lawrence either, might have left home after dinner, made a pleasant 
trip to Salem, obtained exact data relative to the cost of steam-power at the 
Naumkeag Mill, and returned home to supper. The comparison of these, 
with the true rates of water-power at Lowell, would have been of some use, 
but these would not have squared with Mr. Lawrence's conclusions. I will 
now say my estimates of the cost of steam-power have often been pub- 
lished. If he doubted its correctness, why did he not seek for the facts, in- 
stead of treating it in this loose manner ? He could have had them, on 
apphcation to the proper quarter. But now let us turn our attention, once 
more, to figures, and, in doing this, Mr. Lawrence shall have the aid of Mr. 
Francis. 

The Naumkeag Mill has 31,000 spindles, and all the necessary machinery. 
It uses an effective 400 horses-power. For that, and to heat the mill, cloth- 
room, offices, &c., and for all purposes, the consumption of coal averages six 
tons per day, or 1,860 tons per annum — 

310 days, at $5 per ton |9,300 

For first and second engineer, fireman and oil, |5 per day 1,550 

Making the sum of. $10,850 

Per annum ; or $27 \2\ per annum for each horse-power, heating mill, &c., 
as above. 

Mr. Francis' statement makes the annual cost of water-power for the Mas- 
sachusetts Mills, rated at — 

592 horses power $'7,'741 44 

To heat the four mills, offices, <fec., will cost at least 4,000 00 

The difference in cost between the foundations for steam-mills, on a good 
site, selected for the purpose, and those of the four mills of the Mas- 
sachusetts Company on the bank of the river, would be at least 

$40,000, the interest on which would be 2,400 00 

Add to these the transportation of 8 tons per day, from Boston to 

Lowell, of cotton, oil, starch, anthracite coal, (fee, at $1 25 per ton 8,100 00 

And you have the sum of $17,241 44 

As the cost of water-power for the Massachusetts Mills at Lowell, including 
its unavoidable contingencies. This $29 12 per horse-power per annum, is 
$2 per horse-power more than the cost of steam-power at Salem. 

Again : though I do not doubt the statement of Mr. Francis relative to 
the cost of water-power for the Massachusetts Mills, I have a question or 
two to ask. Is it intended to be understood that the rate he has named is 
the Lowell rate for water-power, and the established rate ? What the power 
may have cost one company at Lowell has nothing to do with the question. 
Has not Mr. Francis stated the rate for the Massachusetts Mills at nearly 33i 
per cent less than the established rate at Lowell ? Can water-power now be 
purchased there for less than $5 per spindle, all contingencies taken into the 
account ? If any one thinks so, let him try it. I would here remark, no 
account has been made, in the above comparative statement, of the cost of a 
steam-engine. I offset that against the cost of water- wheels, wheel-pits, &c., 
though the engine would cost much less at first, and be kept in repair at as 
little expense. 

Mr. Lawrence appears to think it somewhat singular that if steam-power 
is as cheap as water-power, people have been so slow to adopt it. He may 
recollect, perliaps, ii is only about twenty years since, or a little more, that a 
committee of the New York Legislature, among whom was even the celebra- 



28 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 

ted De Witt Clinton, thought the man crazy, who proposed to run a loco- 
motive eight miles per hour on a railroad track. Veiy few persons have 
troubled tliemselves to make in<juiries, and to press them tlirough to practi- 
cal results, relative to the comparative merits of steam and water-power. 
Those who have done so, as a general thing, have taken as their guides the 
work of steam-engines in operation ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago, when 
the duty performed by a given amount of fuel was not one-half what it is 
now. Besides, thousands of persons have been frightened out of the idea of 
steam-power, by tlie continual outcry of persons who, like Mr. Lawrence, have 
had a special interest in securing the predominance of water-power. That 
time has nearly passed. People are daily becoming convinced, as the rapid 
multiplication of steam cotton-mills fully proves ; and the time is not far dis- 
tant when people will laugh at the absurdity of any one who shall express a 
doubt of the superiority of steam over water. At Cannelton, Indianna, in 
particular, where operations are already commenced, with the best coal in 
the Union, or at least equal to any in America or Europe, at ninety cents per 
ton, water-power would not be an object worth naming, even could it be had 
gratis. The entire motive-power required to drive the Cannelton Mill, of 
10,000 spindles, together with the fuel for heating the mill, &c., will not cost 
as much per spindle, as the fuel required for heating the Massachusetts Mills. 

Once more with regard to ]\'Ir. Francis. Mr. Lawrence speaks of him as 
a gentleman as well acquainted with motive-power and application as any 
man in America. I do not dispute his qualifications, but, if his knowledge 
is so deep and extensive in this matter, he certainly has not published all he 
knows. I have received, per last steamer from England, a diagram of the 
actual duty performed by a steam-engine, and the cost of fuel for running it 
also, and I assure him that the cost is less than one-tenth of the cost he has 
put dowii for water-power. If he has any doubts on the subject, the dia- 
gram and evidence, which are in my possession, are at his service. 

Mr. Francis informs Mr. Lawrence that, in 1839, the Massachusetts Com- 
pany had 592 horses water-power. Since that time, the company has pur- 
chased the Prescott Mill, with its water-power. Yet even now, they run but 
45,720 spindles, and have a steam-engine besides. How, under such circum- 
stances, would the cost of the company's ])ower, per sjiindle or yard^ com- 
pare with that of steam-power at the Naumkeag Mill ? More especially, how 
would it compare, putting the jnesent established rate of water-power at 
Lowell into the account, and which, as stated above, is about 33i per cent 
higher than it cost the Massachusetts Company in 1839 ? But I have still 
another view to take of this subject. 

Allow the highest rate of power used in this country to drive machinery 
for coarse work, at its highest speed — that is, 100 horses-power to 5,000 
spindles — then the Massachusetts Companj^, driving 45,720 spindles, inclu- 
ding the Prescott Mill, would require 914yY„- horses-power. I will now 
take my data from the table of Lowell statistics, published in 1848, for that 
year. I find there, that those mills consumed the following items of fuel, 
and which shall be set down here at their value in anthracite coal in the 
Boston market. They were — 

Anthracite coal, 2,700 tons, which, at $5 per ton, is $13,500 

100 cords of wood, at $5 500 

Charcoal, 2,000 bushels, at 10 cents 200 

Freight on 2,700 tons of anthracite coal, from Boston, a§l 25 3,375 



Making, in all, the sum of §17,575 



Culture and Manufacture of Cotton, 29 

Tims Ave have the amount of $17,575 as the cost of fuel for tlie Massa- 
chusetts IMills, hesicle its water rent. It will be recollected that fuel for all pur- 
poses for which the above is used was included in the cost of steam-power for the 
Naumkeag Mill. Now, add to this the amount of water rent, in other words the 
cost of water-power annually, to the Massachusetts Company, $7,441 44, as sta- 
ted by Mr. Francis, and youmake up the gross sum of 125,016 44. This state- 
ment speaks for itself. So much it cost the Massachusetts Company in 1848, 
for water-power and fuel. It has already been shown that the cost of steam- 
power at the Naumkeag Mill is $10,850 per annum, and that cost includes, 
beside power, all for which fuel is used in the Massachusetts Mills. How, 
then, stands the case ? If 400 horses steam-power at Salem cost $10,850, 
then say, in round numbers, the $25,000 expended at the Massachusetts 
Mills would furnish 921 j^g\ horses steam-power, or 7 / J„- more than 
sufficient to drive all the machinery in those mills. Yet the present estab- 
lished rate of water-power in Lowell would raise the annual cost of power 
required for the above mills to but a fraction short of $10,000, while the 
difference in the sums required in outlays on foundations, &c., would make 
a still farther balance, as already seen, of $2,400. The gentleman having imi- 
ted my attention to the mills of the Massachusetts Company, at Lowell, I 
have gone into a thorough investigation on that subject. I have shown that, 
even at the cost paid by that company for water-power in 1839, the Naum- 
keag Mill is run cheaper by steam, including the heating of the mill, &c. 
Taking the establishecl rate of power at Lowell at this time, and that is the 
fair ground occupied by me all along, every spindle now running in that 
city, and all their requisite machinery, can be run by steam generated at a 
cost not more than equal to the cost of the fuel now consumed in the mills, 
converting it all into anthracite coal, and reckoning at what it costs per ton, 
delivered in the mill-yards in that city, taking for the basis of a calculation 
the cost of steam-j^ower at the Naumkeag Mill, and the quantity of fuel con- 
sumed in the Lowell mills, as per " Statistics of Lowell Manufactures, 
January, 1850." Beside this, the Massachusetts Company must pay at least 
$5,500 per annum freight on cotton, oil, and starch, from Boston, not neces- 
sary to a steam-mill in a seaport place. Where, then, lies the advantao-e ? 
The reader will judge. And now suppose you take Cannelton, Indiana, for 
the field of operation, or any other site in the South or South-west, where 
fuel can be procured at one-ffth of its cost at any place in Massachusetts, 
and orxe-seventh of its cost at Lowell — where cotton will be sent directly to 
the mill by the planters' own teams, or, at most, on a steamboat, at fiifty 
cents per ton for freight — without commissions, without insurance, and with- 
out other expenses accruing on its way to Lowell — and wherft, as at the 
South and South-west, a ready and extensive market is open, now supplied 
by the New England manufacturers at a heavy advance on the cost. Sup- 
pose we plant cotton manufactories in such locations, who can helji seeing 
that they must become for more profitable than at Lowell, and defy all north- 
ern competition ? 

One word more on steam-power, and I shall have done with that subject. 
Many suppose the cost of motive-power to be a principal item in the manu- 
f;^cturing account, whereas, on all the cotton goods manufactured in New 
England, the cost of power, steam or water, does not average more than 
three mills per yard. The steam-mill goods, from certain well-known causes, 
are of so much better quality than others, as to texture, smoothness, &c., 
that they command in market prices so much greater than others, that the 



30 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 

difference will considerably more than pay the entire cost of stcam.-power 
used in their manufacture. This statement is true. The results in the mar- 
kets will fully sustain it — and Mr. Lawrence or any one else is challenged to 
disprove the statement. Where, then, the advantage of water-power ? 

Mr. Lawrence says, "all the country mills in New England, which have 
been built fifteen years, have wholly or partially foiled," with exceptions, 
" which are only exceptions to the general truth." Does he make this state- 
ment with reference to the manufjicturing business, or to mill-owners ? If 
with respect to the unproductiveness of the business, when properly man- 
aged, the statement is not true. Has he known any failures in the compa- 
nies at Lowell, Waltham, Soraersworth, Dover, Fall Eiver, or of individual 
manufacturers there, or anywhere else, who have properly managed their bu- 
siness, and not, as he says the cotton-planters have, extended their business 
beyond their means ? In this business, as in other branches, there have been 
many failures, but they have most frequently originated in speculations, and 
in attempts to do a great business with a small capital, by which means per- 
sons have found themselves unable to pass, successfully, a crisis created by a 
tight money market, even of a few months. But a " tirst " rate — I will not 
say '■'■class'''' — steam-mill, well managed, will make money, especially at the 
South, in almost any times. Still, Mr. Lawrence says, "manufacturiug has 
been a source of great wealth to New England." Precisely so : and in that 
wealth manufacturers have shared largely. The South sees it, and wishes 
now to have its share. But Mr. Lawrence thinks the people there would 
hardly be willing to invest their capital at so great a hazard, for the small 
profits derived from New England mills. And yet he has said before, that 
the southern people were satisfied to receive smaller rates of interest than 
the people of New England ! And every one knows, who knows anything 
about it, that the hazard of capital invested in the culture of cotton, is far 
greater than that of investments in its manufacture. Very probably any 
" twenty-six first class " planters would like a guaranty of 8j^^ per cent clear 
profit on their capital per annum, for eleven years, the amount of dividends 
for the " twenty-six first class mills," to say nothing of their hundreds of 
thousands of dollars reserved and undivided at the same hazard. 

One word in relation to Mr. Lawrence's scale of prices and rates of wages. 
He attempts to make out a very great disproportion between the decline of 
prices in cloth and cotton in fifteen years. He makes the decline 4i cents 
per pound greater in the price of the cloth than in that of cotton. I'his he 
sets down precisely as if it were so much abstracted from the market value of 
the cloth, while its cost to the manufacturer has remained unchanged. What 
has become of the great improvements in machinery he talks about ? Have 
they done nothing toward reducing the cost of manufacturing in fifteen 
years ? Does it cost as much to manufacture a pound of cotton now, as it 
did fifteen years ago ? In first rate mills no : and yet the planter can raise 
cotton now no cheaper than he could then. But labor, he says, is higher. 
"Women's labor is increased three- fold, and men's is nearly double." Does 
he believe this statement himself? Charity says yes ; but she has to stretch 
a point or two, to give such a reply. Mr. Lawrence will not say, a female 
operative now receives wages that would enable her to pay three times as 
much for board as she did in 1835, and then have three times as much left 
as she had then. He will not pretend to say that a man earns enough now 
to pay double what he paid then for the maintenance of his family, and have 
double the amount left he had then. No : even Mr. Lawrence dare not 



Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 31 

make sucli a statement, for lie well knows it would not be true, and that 
everybody else knows it ; his appeal to the cost of ticking, shirtings, and 
calicoes to the contrary notwithstanding. The truth is, neither men nor wo- 
men, fectory c peratives, to my knowledge, receive more wages now than they 
did in 1835. Ffteen years have not increased their wages, nor materially 
reduced the cost of living. True, they spin and weave more pounds of cotton 
in a day than they did then. But they derive no advantage from it, and 
their wages, as a general thing, are not enhanced by it. Neither is Mr. 
Lawrence's sta ement a fair one in respect to the decline in prices. 

To make o ^ t a case, if possible, the gentleman has taken the price of cot- 
ton at almost its highest value, for the last eight or nine years, the conse- 
quence of a short crop, and cloth at about its lowest value for the same period, 
when an average for cotton, much lower, would have been the fair test, and, 
for cloth, higher. And even this statement of his was made in the very face 
of his previous admission that cotton must decline in price during the com- 
ing season, or cloth rise, or both. Here is an admission that cotton was re- 
markably high when he wrote, and cloth very low — that the disproportion 
between them had been created by extraordinary causes, and that the opera- 
ration of the laws of trade must soon restore the two articles to something 
like their proper relative values. His prediction as to the increased market 
value of cloth is fast being fulfilled ; and yet he takes the extraordinary pe- 
riod of a few months past as the basis of calculation for the a,verage compar- 
ative diminution in the prices of cloth and cotton for fifteen years ! Were 
the transactions of the commercial world regulated by such an interpretation 
of the laws of trade, they would present a singular spectacle. Yet, after all, 
it is enough to know that, during eleven of those fifteen years, twenty-six 
cotton-mills have divided, on an average for the whole time, among the whole 
number, 8j\ per cent per annum on enormous capitals, beside building 
new mills with reserved profits, and laying by hundreds of thousands of dol- 
lars for " surplus cash capital.'''' Had Mr. Lawrence an object in making 
the comparative statement above alluded to without a reference to the qual- 
ifying statement in his first number ? It may be so. 

Perhaps Mr. Lawrence wished to persuade the cotton planter to promote 
the planterh interest., no doubt — not to hazard his capital in the manufactur- 
ing business, with its small and diminishing profits, while the profits of cot- 
ton planting were large, and scarcely lessened at all in fifteen years ; or per- 
haps, as we subsequently have a few pretty plain hints, to embark his capital 
at the North, to aid in the upbuilding of northern manufacturing cities in 
progress or in embryo, or to arrest the fall of certain mills, by purchasing 
their stocks, already 40 per cent below par. Such may have been the case. 
Let others judge. It may be otherwise ; but his frequent croakings about 
the hazards, the disasters, the failures, and, at best, the small profits of the 
manufacturing business, seem mightily like a sort of squinting toward 
the object of restraining the southern people from entering into com- 
petition with those of the North ; or, that failing, to persuade them 
to embark their funds on board the new northern ship Lawrence, or some 
other craft belonging in whole or in part to the same firm. Thus, with hon- 
eyed words, and abundant fraternal sympathy, he exhorts '■'• our friends'''' at 
the South, in effect, either not to enter the manufacturing field at all, or, if 
they should, to invest their funds in northern mills. The substance is, they 
must pay freight and expenses on their own cotton to Lowell, and on their 
cloth back ag lin ; and leave at the North all the ^ ealth created by labor 



32 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 

witli the use of that capital, to build up northern towns and cities, equaling, 
once in two years at least, the amount of capital invested, with the exception 
of SfV per cent per annum on its amount, in the Avay of dividends ! How 
kind ! how considerate ! 

If Mr. Lawrence could be in the least suspected of having the smallest and 
most remote interest in aiding any of his " first class mills," or building up 
the city of Lawrence, or any other place, or in advancing the prices of man- 
ufacturing stocks in " first class mills," suspicions might be entertained that, 
in all these kindly admonitions, there was a slight tincture of selfishness. 
Casting this unworthy thought to the winds, we view the kind-hearted gen- 
tleman, his heart teeming with tender compassion, warning " our soutliern 
friends " not to involve themselves in the disastrous results of the manufac- 
turing business, which has so much " enriched New England^ I would aid 
the gentleman's pious labors, by holding up, as frightful examples, such men 
as the Law^rencks, the Appletons, and hundi-eds of others, New England 
manufacturers. Lest these exam] ties should fail to produce the desired ef- 
fect, I would also hold up to view Lowell, Manchester, Pawtucket, Wal- 
TiiAM, L'>over, Woonsocket, Fall River, Lawrence, &c., &c., to which 
may be added commercial cities, such as Boston, Pi-ovidence, and others. With 
such examples as these before their eyes, one would think " our southern 
friends " might be forewarned, and forearmed. Let the southern capitalists 
heware of manufacturing^ lest they become Lawrences and Appletons, and 
build up Lowells in their midst. They must send their cotton to the North, 
and have it returned in cloth, with all expenses accumulated on it, including 
the cost of manufacturing. They must invest their capital in northern " first 
class mills," receive an annual dividend on it of ^-^-^ per cent, and leave 
behind more than YO 'per cent, each two years, of the amount of the cajntal, 
in ivealth created hy the labor it 'pa-ys for, to build up the fortunes of north- 
ern men, and to people and enrich New England. Let them do all this, and 
they have no reason to fear that the fate of New England will ever beflill 
them. 

Near the close of ^Ir. Lawrence's review, he ajipears to have wrought 
himself up to some slight degree of pugnacity. He speaks of " Lawrence, 
Amoskeag, Saco, and other places of less note," and finally concludes that 
the water-power of Massachusetts alone, now imoecupied, is sufficient to 
drive all the cotton mills in the United States. Well — what then ? Why, 
by holding a rod in terrorum over the heads of the southern people, by as- 
suring them that the mammoth corporations will occupy the water-power, 
any how, he tries to frighten those same southern "/r/mci's" out of their 
wits with the vision of this mighty competition, and to thus prevent them 
from embarking in the manufacturing business. But does Mr. Lawrence 
recollect that if Massachusetts and New Hampshire have water, the South 
has wood and coal quite as abundant, and at much lower rates ? Does he 
recollect, too, that the southern and south-western people have cotton, and 
that the saving to them, in the cost of that article alone, compared with its 
cost in New England, will be more than thrice the cost of steam-power to 
them to manufacture it ? Of what use, for instance, would the water-power 
he names be to the manufacturers on the banks of the Ohio ? — say at Can- 
nelton, where, with the best of coal at ninety cents per ton at the 
mills, they can have a motive power better than any water-power, and at 
a cost less than that of heating a water-mill at Lowell, and save, also, at 
least $20,000 per annum in the cost of cotton fur 10,000 spindles, com- 



Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 88 

pared witli its cost at Lowell ? Can Mr. Lawrence tell what competition 
Cannelton, or other places with locations equally ftivorable, have to fear from 
New England water-power, or New England corporations ? And as to the 
time for the erection of cotton-mills — during an experience of more than 
twenty years in the business, I have never vritnessed a period more favorable 
than the present. Were it not that my business is so extended to almost 
all parts of the country, and my time so completely occupied, I would most 
assuredly embrace the present moment to erect a large mill to run on my 
own account. The prospect is as bright, too, as at any time in the history 
of ur country ;• and would our New England manufacturers remodel their 
mills, and vary their business, instead of adhering to the practice of manu- 
facturing plain cottons only, they would make much more money. A thou- 
sand articles might be made, in which the price of a pound of cotton would be 
magnified by its manufacture to fifty cents, and even to one dollar per pound, 
instead of twenty-five cents, and to great profit. The sooner the South 
monopolize the manufacture of coarse goods, the better will it be for the 
manufacturers of New England ; and however much I may be blamed for 
spreading the facts I have before the people of the South, the thne will come 
when the northern manufacturer will see that, as far as my feeble eflforts may 
have any eftect, as to their interests, that effect will be favorable. 

For years, the northern press has been loud and frequent in recommen- 
dations to the South, to enter the field of enterprise, and manufacture her 
own staple ; and, by way of encouragement, the success of New England 
in the same branch of business, with the enhanced cost of the raw material, 
has been held out as an example. No fault, to my knowledge, has ever 
been found with that course. During the time, however, the manufacturers 
have uttered no note of encouragement, keeping a continual studied silence, 
when their business was ])rosperous, and only opening their lips to give ut- 
terance to doleful complaints, if occasionally a reverse occurred. Though 
myself a New England man, I am also an American^ and claim brotherhood 
with the American people, as a whole. It gives me pleasure to witness the 
prosperity of New England ; but, as an American citizen, it gives me equal 
pleasure to witness the prosperity of the whole country. Hence, in what- 
ever has been written by me on the subject of manufactures at the South, 
my object has been to promote the interest of that section of our common 
country, without the most remote wish to injure that of any other. Busi- 
ness has never been sought by me there, nor ever will be. The pamph- 
let, of which the abridgment appeared in '■'• Hunfs Merchants' Magazine/or 
November., 1849," was written by the especial request of southern mep, and 
the abridgment was made also by request. The southern people wished for 
information on the subject of cotton manufactures, in order to kno"' whether 
it was, or was not, prudent for them to engage in the business. They ap- 
plied to me to impart that information. The call was, after ? time, respond- 
ed to by me, and, as in duty bound, I gave them facts in an nonestand truth- 
ful manner — facts that I have fully substantiated — and to establish which, 
on the basis of future operations, also, I hold myself wledged and bound to 
do. I have not only the ability., but the means iQ do it. Fully aware of 
the reluctance of northern manufacturers to have ihe details and results of 
their operations exposed, and wishing neither to excite their animosity, to 
alarm their cupidity, nor to injure their intejtsts, I carefully abstained from 
all interference with their concerns, and merely stated the general results 
ojf the buaifless io New England, and wiat eould be 4ope, m^ Jwd been 
3 



84 Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 

done, with a steara-raill of my own construction. And what has been the 
result ? T have been attacked from all quarters, and in all forms — and why ? 
Evidently because my statements were calculated to give encouragement to 
manufacture? at the South, and to bring them into competition with those 
of the North. What other motives could have animated those who ha\e 
■assailed me ? I pretended not, though I could have done it, to penetrate 
the veil hung over the doings of northern manufacturers. My eflbi-t was 
to show the southern people what thei/ might do — not by reference to ihe 
doings of a nvmiber of pretended " first class mills," but to others of my 
own building. Mr. Lawrence, and others, apparently alarmed at this, and 
fearing the result, entered the arena, and, by insinuations, innuendos, and 
broad statements, have endeavored to fix the falsehood upon me ; not be- 
cause I had misrepresented northern mills, or their products or pi'otits, but 
•because, as they would have it to be understood, I had made exaggerated 
statements relative to mills erected by me. And how have they succeeded ? 
There is scarcely a statement made by them that has not been proved falla- 
cious — not a statement of mine that has not been substantiated. Mr. Law- 
rence has driven me, in self-defense, to bring out facts relative to which, if 
let alone, I should have been silent. If they have a hea\y and injurious 
bearing on the northern manufacturing interest, those connected with it may 
thank their champion. I flatter myself that no one can tell me much that 
I do not know about the cotton- manufacture in New England, or the cost, 
condition, product, and profit and loss of a great number of New England 
cotton mills, and among them, most of the twenty six "first-class mills." 
Thus far, they have just been touched on by me, and there it is my wish 
to leave them ; yet much remains behind, that some would rather should 
be ])ermitted to rest undisturbed. So shall it rest, unless farther provocation 
shall call it out. 

Why all this hue and cry, like the cry of mad dog, after an humble indi- 
vidual like myself? It is envy, jealousy, hate ; because, without the pa- 
tronage of overgrown and aristocratic corporations, I have, after more than 
twenty years of patient and unremitting toil, by means of self culture alone, 
qualiHed myself, by erecting about one- eighth of all the cotton-mills in America, 
as an engineer and manufacturer, to construct a better mill than the best of 
■theirs, at less cost, that will manufacture a grearer quantity of better goods, 
at less expense. This I proclaim to the world, without the intention of 
boasting, and appeal to my works as evidence. It is for this crime — because 
1 ''.an heat Lowell — that attempts are made, and not now for the first time 
eithtr, to hunt me down ; but the pursuers are mistaken in their game, and 
in then powers. They may as well g"ive up the chase — the manufacturing 
spirit is tj.st gaining strength in the Middle and Southern States. Cotton- 
mills are r«)icl|y on the increase. As their owners begin to handle the 
profits, you oinnot cheat them out of the evidence of their own senses. 
Sotithern compeotion must come. The South can manufacture coarse goods 
cheaper, and at gieater profit, than the North. If the northern manufac- 
turers are wise, the; will, instead of fi-etting themselves on this account, 
make all necessary improvements in their manufacturing establishments, and 
supply the markets with such fabrics as the South will not find it to its in- 
terest to supply for many years to come. 

I now take leave of the subject, leaving the public to make up judgment 
between Mr. Lawrence and me. I harbor no imkind feelings to him. If 
plain language has been used by me, and some degree of asperity, they 



Culture and Manufacture of Cotton. 35 

have not been aimed at him personally, but at his works ; and it is presumed 
he will understand my allusion, when I say, " the bloivs aimed at the hdmet 
were not intended for the head." Mr. Lawrence is a man of tnlents, and it 
is presumed has written as well as any one else would have done for his 
side of the question. Unfortunately for him, his case is a bad one — eveu 
much worse, as I know, and could readily prove, if occasion should require — 
much worse than I have labored to show. c. t. j. 



NOTE. 

Perhaps Mr. Lawrence may be able to account for a curious movement which 
occurred about the period when his article may be supposed to have produced 
its due effect on the market value of the stock of the Portsmouth Mill. It is 
quite well known that he and his associates were in the market as purchasers of 
this stock, and that they paid for it sixty cents on the dollar, when they could 
have purchased stock in some of their ^'first-rate water-mills,^'' with their " sur- 
plus cash capital,'" i^i fifty cents; and I would inquire of Mr. Lawrence if they 
did or did not, finally, run the Portsmouth stock up to seventy-five cents, and 
make offers to purchase at that price? It is somewhat singular that Mr. Law- 
rence should take so much pains to write steam-mills down, and at the same 
time should purchase stock in one he seemed to consider the most unfortunate 
among them, at a comparatively high price. 



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cal Accounts of the various commodities which form the subject op Mercantile Transactions; Port 
Charges; Tariffs; Customs and Commei>cial Regul,vtions; Treaties; Commercial Statistics of the 
United S^tates, and the dirterent countries of the world with which we have intercourse, incUiiiing their 
Physical Character, Population, Productions, Exports, Imports, Seaports, Moneys, Weights, Measures, 
Finance and Banking Associations; — Enterprises counected with Commerce, embraciiiis Fisheries, Incor- 
jroRATED Companies, Railroads, Canals, -Steamboats, Docks, Post Offices, &c. ; Principles of Commerce, 
".iiNANcs AND Banking, with Practical and Historical Details and Illustrations; Commercial Law 
AND Mercantile Law Reports, and Decisions of Courts in the United States and Europe, including Insu- 
• rance, Partnership, Principal and Agenh", Bills of Exchange, Sale, Guaranty, Bankruptcy, Shipping 
and Navigation, (fee, and whatever eise shall tend to develop tiio resources of the country and the world, and 
il'istrate tlie various topics besirinj; upon Commerce and Commercial Literature ; and we may venture to 
^say that no work heretofore published, embraces in its pages so large an amoiuit of information on all tliese 
E subjects, as the nineteen volumes now completed. 

' Our means of enhancing the value of "The Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review," are con- 
Btantly increjising; and, with new sources of information, an extending correspondence abroad, and other 
facilities, which nearly ten years' devotion to a single object have enabled us to make available, we shall be 
p'-le to render tlie work a perfect ifttdc niecum for the Merchant, Navigator, and Manufacturer, as well as to 
the Statesman, Comincrcial Lawyer, and Political Economist, and, indeed, ail who desire information on the 
tnultifarious operations of business life. 



EXTKACTS FROM LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE EDITOR. 



s from Hon. Samuel R. Bftts, U. S. District Judge for the 
i, Southern District of xVeir York. 

* '• I have received the Merchants' Magazine since its 
entablisliment, and reRurd it as one oi the most valuable 
publications of I he day. As a Register of Facts con- 
iiectcJ Willi Political Economy and Imhistrift' Inierests, 
; Commercial, Agricultural, amXjManufactturiug. it is, in 
' my jiiUgment, not equalled by any work o( lis sizt' and 
cost, in fullness and accuracy ; and its collection of Cases 
and Doctrines in relation t<> AJaritime Law, will be found 
highly useful to professional men— often furnishing 
, American and English cases of great value, which are 
' not to be found in any other publication. 1 inosi cheer- 
fully recommend the work as iiseiul in a high degree, 
to all professions studying the current liislory of the 
t tiiaec." 

I From Hon. Henry Clay. Ashland^ Kentucky. 

" I have long known the great merits of your Maga- 
ztiic, the most useful and valuable of all the publications 
kiiuvvn to me, published in the United States." 

ir.Fr»m tht Hon. Levi Woodbury, one of the Justices of the 
Umted States Court. 

" I have heretofore read most of the numbers of the 
Uerchants' Magazine with much satisfaction and advan- 
Iftge. It is exceedmgly useful to the politician and 
•cliolar. as well as those engaged fti commercial pur- 
•uits. to have the useful statistical inforrnation with 
whicli it abounds, collected together and jjresenled for 
Mieir perusal leasunably." 

From Hon. John Macpherson Rerrien, Senator of the United 
Sl'iles frovi Georgia. 

" I have been, for some time past, in possession of the 
several volumes and numbers of the ' .Merchants' Maga- 
aine,' and m the liHbit of referring to it. I can therefore 
unhe.sitatinglv say. that 1 con.sider it a very valuable ad- 
dition 10 the library of the Salesman, as well as llie mer- 
•Laut, and express, as I do cordiiiliy, the hope that its 
publication mav be continued with increased benefit to 
yourself, us I feel assured it #ill be with advantage to 
the public." 



From the Hon. Washington Hunt, Member of Congress from 
New York. 
" I am gratified to learn from your letter tiiat your 
valuable Magazine continues to receive a libera! support 
from the public. 1 have long considered it one of the 
most useful publications in the country. Indeed it may 
be regarded as indispensable, not only lo the statesman 
but to all who wish to be well-informed respecting the 
commerce of the world, and the rapid growth and vast 
importance of our own commeicial inierests. A work of 
so much interest and usefulness ought to have a place in 
every school district library in the tJnited Slates. 1 wish 
by some such means it might be brought within the reach 
of every intelligent man in llie country. I am convinced 
that it has done much to liberalize and n.itionalize the 
public mind, and 1 hope your circulation may continue to 
increase, until the patronage of the work shall be equal 
to its merits." 

Front the Hon. Edmund Burke, Commissioner of Patents. 

* * * * " When it first commenced I thought its contents 
presented a rich treat, but from that time to the present 
it has continued to improve in the variety, excellence, 
and value of the intellectual repast it has monthly pre- 
sented to its readers. Although professedly devoted lo 
the inierests of that enterprising and enlightened class of 
our countrymen, the merchants, it is not more valuable 
tolhem than it is to the statesman and political economist. 
1 know of no work which equals it in the variety, co- 
piousness, and accuracy of the statistical information 
which it coniains. and which, in my view, constitutes 
one of ils most valuable features. Another feature in the 
Magazine which I like very much, is the spirit of free 
discussion which pervades its pages. You act wisely in 
permilting all parties to be heard upon the mooted theo- 
ries of trade and commerce, which involve to some ex- 
tent ihe great problem of modern civilization, thus keep- 
ing open and free from obstruction, the only direct avenue 
to truth. 

'■ Your publication is equally creditable to the periodical 
literature of the day. Its leading articles exhibit abun- 
dant proof of the ability, research and industry of their 
authors. In short, I esleem the Merchants' Magazine as 
second to no publication of the kind, pubUsheU in this or 
any other country." 



jvy- A few complete sets of the Merchants' Magazine, embracing nineteen semi-annual volumes, of more 
Umii (■'()!) large octavo pages each, bringing it down to December, 1848, may be obtained at the Publisher's Ofiice, 
14'2 Fnltoii-sireet, New York, al the subscription pnce. 



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